Skip to main content
1
4 years ago
Juniors

How many teachers should you typically ask rec letters from during junior year?

I have heard that you should ask teachers at the end of your junior year for rec letters, so you don't rush them during the beginning of senior year. What is a good amount of teachers to ask junior year, and should I (or would I need to) ask any more during the senior year? (I am planning to major in STEM)

rec-letters
1
1

Earn karma by helping others:

1 karma for each ⬆️ upvote on your answer, and 20 karma if your answer is marked accepted.

1 answer

1
4 years ago

Usually, you want 2 teachers (one from humanities, one from STEM) and 1 or 2 other recommenders, like a chaplain, community service leader, etc. Basically, adults that can testify to your character and not just academics. If you have been involved in any important extra curriculars, I would suggest asking the adults in charge of those. A small number of colleges will require 3 teachers, so look at the colleges you want to apply to. Most will allow you to submit as many recommendations as you have (but you don't necessarily want to overburden to many people).

If you already have your recommendations, then there is no reason to ask for more senior year. Unless, maybe, you became like super close to a different teacher and accomplished something spectacular. One other thing you can do, that I wish I had done, is to ask the teachers to save their recommendation as a pdf even if they don't actually send it to you. The Common App will send them a portal where they will write the recommendation in directly. That means if you ever need a recommendation in the future (and you will, either for scholarships or jobs), if they don't have it saved, they would have to rewrite it.

1
What are your chances of acceptance?
Your chance of acceptance
Duke University
Loading…
UCLA
Loading…
+ add school
Your chancing factors
Unweighted GPA: 3.7
1.0
4.0
SAT: 720 math
200
800
| 800 verbal
200
800

Extracurriculars

Low accuracy (4 of 18 factors)

Community Guidelines

To keep this community safe and supportive:

  1. Be kind and respectful!
  2. Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
  3. Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!

How karma works