Both of your choices are fine. The committees care more about the quality of the letter than the type of teacher who wrote it.

Good luck!

Thanks for the information! Also, when applying to programs like Health Sciences, would it be a good idea to ask a Gr. 11 Math teacher to be my academic reference? Yes, she genuinely wants to support me and knows me best; however, Math is like not related to the program. Would a bio teacher be a better choice?

Also, I’m going to ask my Grade 11 teacher for the scholarship academic reference, but do you think the scholarship committee will view this as inferior to someone who has a Grade 12 teacher for an academic reference? Please let me know what you think because I have to ask a teacher soon. Thanks for all you help!

J

You should ask the teacher who knows you best and who you think would write you the best letter. If that’s a Grade 11 teacher, that’s fine as well. I’m pretty sure I used a non-Grade 12 teacher for academic references when I was in Grade 12.

I’m in Grade 12 and currently i’m in the process of applying for a scholarship for community involvement and leadership. They ask for two references (one academic excellence and one community involvement/leadership)to write a paragraph about why I am worth of the scholarship and they will be contact by phone.

I excel in Math and got high 90s in both advanced functions and calculus. However, since it has been almost a year now, my teacher actually forgot my name! But besides her, I don’t really know who else I should ask since I’m not great in other subjects and I’m not really close to them. However, I feel that my Grade 11 math teacher genuinely want to support me as she is my favorite teacher and we chat all the time, but it’s grade 11 and i don’t know if that would be a good idea. Would it still be a good idea to ask a grade 12 teacher who I’m not close with? How should I approach her about this if so?

Thanks Joshua!

That is a super weird situation… I can’t understand why a referee would ever start talking about a completely different student in a letter!

It’s good to know that there seems to be some truth to what’s going through my head =) Thanks for responding.

If the other teacher of the group knows you better personally, and won’t have a negative opinion of you, I don’t see why you wouldn’t be asking her in the first place..? Maybe I misunderstood your situation…

My brother wanted to apply for a volunteer position and asked the faculty adviser of a group he works for to write him one. Unfortunately the faculty adviser just knew me better than him but accepts to write him one.

Not an important letter as you have pointed out BUT (!) when my brother goes into the interview for this position the interviewer asks him why has your referee talked so much about your sister as appose to you!!! My brother was shocked and the poor reference letter led him to a suckky position that he did not enjoy at all!

My point was that even if the position may not seem important make sure that the referee talks about you and not someone else!

The topic of references/reference letters has been something I’ve always been curious about! Thanks for writing this article.

Like the first poster, I’ve never really liked reference letters, and never cared about- until this year (Grade 12). I’m currently writing a scholarship application and they want two references that can “attest to my community activities”.

I have one referee that I’ve spent years helping, but the other referee is a guidance counselor that I haven’t talked to that much- she’s just a leader of the volunteer group that I’m a part of. Also, there was an altercation at the beginning of the year, and I’m afraid that she might have a negative opinion of me. So my question is, should I still list her as a reference? I don’t think she knows me personally, and I’m worried that she probably doesn’t believe that I’m worthy of a scholarship. I would ask another teacher that’s the leader of the same group and knows me slightly more, but then that might look strange/suspicious, won’t it?

Sorry if this seems like a random rant, I’m not really sure what I’m getting at, but your entry really made me think about the people I ask to be my references.

Thanks! =)