Who should write my reference?

[GwenXN]

Hello,

I lived in Germany for 10 years and went to an IB school there. Right before my DP started, I moved back to Holland where I was born. I did my last two years of school, so my DP years, in a school in Holland. The school in Germany was quite small and I had a great bond with most teachers, especially one in particular, who I've asked to write my reference for UK universities because he knows me very well. I was told however that this is going to raise some major questions from the university, seeing as he didn't teach me in my DP years. We have however kept contact these last two years. The school in Holland is much bigger and although I do have a teacher who I see as suitable to write my reference, I'd definitely prefer my teacher in Germany. Can I do this? If yes, what are the risks? And can I have two references?

Thanks very much in advance,

Gwen

[Sandwich]

It'll look best if the people currently teaching you write your reference as they are the only ones able to comment on your current academic abilities, attendance, attitude etc. - the absence of a comment from the people who're actually educating you will look a bit weird! My reference was written with contributions from all the teachers who taught me, plus an overall comment from our Head of 6th Form (the person in charge of the IB years). The University mostly wants to know about your attitude to work and how you're coping with it, and the issue with finding a past teacher is that neither you nor the difficulty of work was the same back then.

So all in all, I'd say get one of your current teachers to write it. To my knowledge, you submit only 1 reference.

[Guest Soiboist]

You can let your German teacher have a small space of the reference letter as well, such as "German teacher agrees and says that GwenXN was a terrific guy that always did his homework on time" etc.

Edited March 28, 2011 by Soiboist