Letter of Recccomendation Advice

I wish to study mathematics, and so naturally it would make sense to ask my math teacher for a letter of reccomendation. But I feel like he might be too honest, and in the past he has even emailed universities to rescind letters of reccomendations he had written for students who started skipping his TOK classes after getting the letter. I feel like he might write something like "He's good at _____ but needs to improve on ______" and I feel like that might harm me if the letter is neutral or too critical.

Hence I wanted to ask my English teacher instead, who I'm almost certain would write me a glowing letter of recomendation, however English has nothing to do with math.

Does the subject of the teacher who writes your letter of reccomendation matter, and if so how significantly? Is a letter of recommendation used more for assessing academic ability or character?

I plan to apply to Imperial, Warwick, UCL, Manchester, and Edinburgh, if that helps.

Thank you all so much in advance.

Reply 1

McGinger

We don't do 'letters of recommendation' in the UK - here you have just one academic reference as part of your UCAS application. If you applying from a UK school or college, you wont get a choice about who writes it, it will just be 'a school reference'

Reply 2

Muu9

Original post

by McGinger

Who writes the school reference?

Reply 3

WHO????

Original post

by Muu9

Who writes the school reference?

Depends on the school, could be head of year, could be form tutor, with my school a teacher from each subject I take wrote a paragraph and my form tutor edited it to make it flow. But it doesn't matter who writes it as long as it comes from the school and you don't get to choose or give much input either.

Reply 4

WHO????

Original post

by RaaiJ

I wish to study mathematics, and so naturally it would make sense to ask my math teacher for a letter of reccomendation. But I feel like he might be too honest, and in the past he has even emailed universities to rescind letters of reccomendations he had written for students who started skipping his TOK classes after getting the letter. I feel like he might write something like "He's good at _____ but needs to improve on ______" and I feel like that might harm me if the letter is neutral or too critical.
Hence I wanted to ask my English teacher instead, who I'm almost certain would write me a glowing letter of recomendation, however English has nothing to do with math.
Does the subject of the teacher who writes your letter of reccomendation matter, and if so how significantly? Is a letter of recommendation used more for assessing academic ability or character?
I plan to apply to Imperial, Warwick, UCL, Manchester, and Edinburgh, if that helps.
Thank you all so much in advance.

Your academic reference is entered into UCAS by whoever your school counsellor or who manages UCAS at your school is. With academic references they are supposed to support you, your maths teacher is not supposed to write anything negative nor is he allowed to then contact universities to damage a student's prospects. Universities know as well that teachers would write glowing references so they pay least attention to it. What matters more is your personal statement