Anyone used a high-school teacher as a reference and received a UofT acceptance?

[jonbonezjones]

As title suggests. I'm aware that UofT puts a lot of emphasis on referees so I really wanna get this right. I have a really strong relation w/ my highschool teacher. She knows me on a personal level so it wouldn't be an academic reference (I already have a prof for that). Has anyone used a highschool teacher as a referee and gotten accepted?

 

My other option would be a PhD student whom I work under at my lab

 

I have a 3.96 cGPA and pretty good EC's just for reference

[scoobydoo1623]

Well with that GPA and UofT's apparent emphasis on higher GPAs, I bet you could get away with shitty references lmao

[DrOtter]

1 hour ago, scoobydoo1623 said:

Well with that GPA and UofT's apparent emphasis on higher GPAs, I bet you could get away with shitty references lmao

LOL I'm not too sure about that. Plenty people with 4.0 GPAs didn't get invited to interviews all the time 

With that said, your high school teacher would be fine, OP, as long as they know you well and can give salient examples for each of the qualities assessed on the reference form. 

[hbmed]

Can't really say from a UofT perspective, but I had a high school teacher who knew me really well and I had been involved with on a lot of school/community events as my "community" reference, and then my other two were my research PI and my immediate research supervisor (both are profs)- I got in to Western still! 

[petmegoat]

I had very similar stats to you and used a highschool teacher as a referee and got into UofT this year! Like others have said, who your referee is matters substantially less than what they have to say about you

[Quark]

4 hours ago, scoobydoo1623 said:

Well with that GPA and UofT's apparent emphasis on higher GPAs, I bet you could get away with shitty references lmao

U of T is one of the schools that 100% looks at and considers references, so probs not lol.

To OP, definitely had a number of classmates who used high school teachers at references and made it. As others have said, it's about how well they can speak to your personal characteristics and capabilities!

[Galaxsci]

Yep, used a high school teacher and got into Toronto. Should be fine as long as it's more of a character reference, don't be that person who uses their high school teacher to talk about their aptitude for Grade 11 Biology.

[FingersCrossedPls]

Exactly what @Galaxsci said! I also used a HS French teacher and got in  She spoke more about me as a person (as far as I know, I guess we truly never know haha) and she mentored me in a few academic related competitions so she could speak on my characteristics as a learner wrt feedback, work ethic etc. However, no one wants to see someone gush about how amazing you were with content developed for 15 year olds so just clarify exactly what aspects of you you would like them to comment on!! Good luck!!

[Anon_9]

Just to add to this, my good friend used her high school teacher as a reference and also got accepted to the University of Toronto!