<p>I'm planning to be a Engineering major. So far I'm set to get letters of rec from:</p>
<p>-Physics teacher
-English teacher
-College counselor
-My Supervisor at my Volunteer Internship (I volunteer for a city IT Dept.)
-Engineering Professor I worked with over the summer</p>
<p>Is this too many? I think some schools will only take the first three, but what about others?</p>
<p>The most beyond the requested number you should give for a given college is ONE. After that, you start to fall into the “the thicker the file, the thicker the student” category. You usually need two academic teachers (good you have a science and a humanities subject there), and of course your counselor fills out a form for their rec. So pick one of the others and use it if the schools allow extra recs.</p>
<p>The counselor Rec does not count as a rec in the traditional sense since it is required by everyone. Some schools let you do two academic so school related and two non academic. If that is the case you can do all five that you want to do. </p>
<p>I heard of someone who sent in 82 recs not sure how but he did. So it must be possible to send in more then two.</p>
<p>The counselor Rec does not count as a rec in the traditional sense since it is required by everyone. Some schools let you do two academic so school related and two non academic. If that is the case you can do all five that you want to do. </p>
<p>I heard of someone who sent in 82 recs not sure how. but he did. So it must be possible to send in more then two.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I didn’t know that the counselor’s letter didn’t count toward the “limit.” I’ll probably use the fourth one over the fifth one in most cases since I’ve spent far more time and done more at my internship.</p>
<p>Would skip the internship adviser LoR and just stick with the two teachers. The adcoms have enough to read already and they don’t appreciate materials above and beyond what is requested.</p>
<p>It depends on the school. Most schools want 1 from counselor, 2 from teacher, and may be 1 additional non-teacher. Some schools allow 4 teachers’ rec. So 5 rec total is not the issue, but the distribution of them and school requirement.</p>
<p>Sorry to take this thread on a detour, but I did notice on the Common Ap page where you attach recommenders that most schools indicate what they will accept. For example - teacher (1 required, 1 additional accepted); other such as coach, minister, etc. - 0 required, 1 accepted). Not sure I’ve got the right wording as it’s not in front of me right now…</p>
<p>We haven’t seen that any of my daughter’s schools say anything at all about ‘other’ recommendations. Is this just something the Common Ap facilitates? Do colleges really want to see these? Seems like they would mention them on their we pages if that we’re the case. My daughter has trained with the same riding coach for the past 5 years and he knows her far better than any of her teachers do, but she wasn’t planning to ask him for a letter as none of her schools seem very interested. Is something like this worth including or not? (She’s not applying to an equestrian program…)</p>
<p>I personally would NOT include it. My kid (accepted last year at everyplace she applied, including U of Chicago & Swarthmore) only included one extra letter at ONE of the schools she applied to. Her coach all the way through high school for an academic-related EC was a graduate of one of the colleges she applied to. He wrote her an additional rec – since it was an academic EC AND he was a graduate, it seemed like it would add to her application. But be very selective – as YaleGradandDad said, ad coms have soooo much material. They don’t appreciate being sent additional items beyond what is requested unless it is very relevant and adds a lot to the application.</p>
<p>At an information session this summer for a highly selective university, the admissions officer was asked about sending in one extra letter of recommendation. He said there must be an unusually strong justification for sending anything beyond the standard, and intparent’s example is a good one.
He said that one candidate sent in ten letters of recommendation and was rejected for that reason, because it showed that the student could not follow directions and was crazy.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s “too much” but for the colleges that let you send that many, you run the risk that they might not even read them. If it’s not required, they may just look over them. But, I don’t think theres any problem in sending them anyway! I would say they can only help you.</p>
<p>Rockyred, you have obviously never talked to an admissions officer who is swamped with many hundreds or even thousands of applications they have to read in a period of just a couple of months. They ask for what they ask for because that is what they want. They believe you should be able to make your case in that amount of paper & space. Only in exceptional circumstances are they happy to see extra materials. Extra material that does not add significantly to the application is an annoyance, and CAN hurt you.</p>
<p>Look at it this way, the admissions reader has a finite amount of time to read LORs. If two are requested and three sent there’s a chance three will be read. If two are requested and five are sent you are running the very distinct risk the reader will randomly pick two to read. It would be sad if they missed the physics teacher LOR who said your student was one of the best in her career but instead read the one from her coach saying what a valuable team player she was. You have no idea which might be read. You want to leave it to chance? Only send an additional if there is a significant value add, if that person can say something significant about you your GC and other LOR(s) haven’t. This is one where more is NOT always better (and I would not want to add work for the reader).</p>
<p>I guess that the rule of thumb is that you can send in an additional LOR if it is not just a repetition of what the other LORs will say.</p>
<p>What will your internship supervisor say that your teachers won’t?</p>
<p>What did you do for the Engineering professor that you worked with over the summer?</p>
<p>I feel if you send too many rec letters they begin to say the same thing about you (unless a teacher knows you on a different level/perspective) but unless there is a teacher that can write about something that other teachers can’t I wouldn’t send too many because admissions people only have so much time to review your app</p>
<p>if you send in too many it makes adcoms feel like you’re trying to make up for a weaker part of your app.</p>
<p>If you have a good college counselor, they will tell you what is acceptable and what is not for any given school. (They’ve done this hundreds of times, so they know.) But the general rule is, never exceed the requested amount by more than one - total! Not one for every category. And have a very good reason for sending in even that one - like it’s from the president of the university, and he really likes you - he’s not just writing this because grandma is a big donor and he really doesn’t think you belong.</p>
<p>Elite level admin officers have said repeatedly that if you send in a pile of recs, they are just going to read two at random. Don’t be “That Kid”.</p>
<p>Starting this year the common app imposes hard and fast limits on how many recs can be submitted directly with the app (including for each school the required and any optional additional recs). If a school doesn’t allow any optional additional recs, they simply can’t be submitted through the common app process. </p>
<p>You need to limit your recs to the number and type permitted for each school by the common app. The only exception would be if you contact the school or admissions counselor directly to briefly explain your particular situation and they tell you to go ahead and submit an additional rec by email or hard copy.</p>
<p>Is it ok to have only Humanities teachers (English and Social Studies) write letters of recommendation for a future engineering major?</p>
<p>@cecileseb - that would be odd if <em>all</em> your LORs came from non-science/math teachers; and possibly sending up a red flag. Why don’t you have any science/math LORs?</p>