What makes a good teacher for a Letter of Recommendation

Question

Currently I am a rising senoir that is looking into applying to colleges. My intended major is Evolutionary Biology or something relating to that.

I took AP Biology in junior year and, I was initially planning to ask my bio teacher for a letter of rec since that would be the closest class to my intended major and I did really well in his class. However, he might not be a good choice to write the recommendation. While he is a good teacher, it鈥檚 pretty clear that he doesn鈥檛 like teaching or doing any work outside of school hours. Additionally, I had him freshmen year and he didn鈥檛 remember me so idk if he鈥檒l remember me this year.

Last year I also took AP 2d art and design. I had that teacher all three years of high school and was much closer to her than the biology teacher (I would sometime talk after class or stay after school in art which I never did with in bio). My art teacher also really liked me whereas I never knew if my bio teacher liked me.

Would it be better to get a letter of recommendation from my biology teacher (that I wasn鈥檛 very familiar with but is related to my major) or the art teacher (who is much more familiar with my work ethic)?

Answer

art teacher! pick someone that knows you well. the grade from bio can speak to your knowledge. not worth asking the teacher if he can't add anything that your transcript and AP score don't already say. the art teacher could for sure talk about your other qualities, maybe those qualities are useful to your major in some way (like seeing things in multiple perspectives, dexterity when working with specialized tools, etc). also, you could maybe ask both. some schools accept two letters of rec.

Answer

Definitely your art teacher! A detailed letter about your work ethic and character from a teacher that you're familiar with is much more valuable than one from a teacher that doesn't know you as a person as well. You can always provide your art teacher with information about your major and activities or qualities you would like to highlight!

Answer

Out of those two, art for sure. If you took another science class or maybe math or something else STEM related, and there's a teacher in that field you know well, you could ask them, because it might be useful to have a more related letter of recommendation, but I think the strongest letter is what counts the most. 

Additionally, if you did any biology or science things out of school (a club, a camp, a volunteer event) and there's someone there who could speak to your work ethic and interest, you could request a letter of recommendation from them, although I know that might not be the case. Lots of colleges allow that supplemental letter that is related to your major choice.

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