A systematic study has been made of the photoluminescence spectra of modulation-doped strained-layer quantum wells at high electron sheet densities. Peaks associated with both the n = 1 and n = 2 electron subbands are observed, and the relative intensities are shown to be a result of the symmetry properties of the quantum wells. It is demonstrated that only the full width half maximum of the n = 2 subband peak is useful for characterizing high carrier densities.