<p>My teacher told me that he wrote a two-page 1300-word recommendation letter for Ivy league schools where I will apply. He told me he was very proud of his rec, and that it was possibly the best he had ever written. I am expecting it to be stellar. Pretty sure it is.</p>
<p>Should I ask him to make it shorter? Is 2 pages fine?</p>
<p>I suppose a proper response would be that it depends on what is in the letter.</p>
<p>On a pragmatic level however, the letter is too long.</p>
<p>Remember that adcoms spend an average of less than five minutes on each application. There is a reason the Common App has hard limits on the word counts in its essays - there simply is not enough time to review everything that APPLICANTS consider important. Instead they limit it to what the ADCOMS consider important.</p>
<p>If the teacher has put a high level of effort into your letter and apparently is quite proud of it, you are probably best served to simply smile and thank him. If it has wonderful anecdotes about you, it likely won’t hurt your consideration. After all, you cannot be faulted for what someone else wrote about you, within limits of course.</p>
<p>I do think the content must be stellar.</p>
<p>I would say “thank you” and not another word. And I would be grateful that I had a teacher so supportive of me.</p>
<p>Agreed. Do not ask him to change anything.</p>
<p>Is the letter too long? Yup. Should you ask him to edit it? Nope.</p>
<p>Remember, quality over quantity. It is very impressive that your teacher put his highest level of effort into writing such a long reccommendation.</p>