<p>Okay first, it's not like I asked for 6. I only asked for 4, and 3 were required. Look:
Two teacher evaluations and guidance counselor recommendation, required.
Then: Principal's recommendation letter, school requirement.
Then: I asked for an extra recommendation (it was fairly short, 3 paragraphs) from my English teacher, just so he could mention my writing skills and how it relates to me (I thought it was a pretty important part of the application.)
Now: My counselor wants to submit a second updating recommendation with my mid-year report about a few things that happened since I submitted my application. He started it off with "I felt compelled to write this recommendation" so I'm assuming they won't see this as my asking for an extra rec.</p>
<p>The principal recommendation was overboard, in my opinion, but my school requires it (it was one page and had nothing the others didn't). The other 5 add important information (4 of them are about 1.5 pages, and the fifth is the 3 paragraph one which is like .75 of a page). Do you think they'll see this as pushy? What should I do about it?</p>
<p>“the thicker the file, the thicker the kid”</p>
<p>The fact is schools only ask for a finite number because very little can be gained from the fourth rec letter onwards – they basically repeat the same old stuff. Don’t do it. Only potentially annoys the readers with little upside potential.</p>
<p>None of recommendations #4-6 are going to be good enough to warrant their existence. Don’t make an admissions officer’s pile bigger unless it’s life or death.</p>
<p>^I’d say that 2 of the 3 extra ones are worth more than 2 of the 3 sent in beforehand.
I called the admissions office and they said it wouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>Obviously admissions officers are not going to plainly state that the additional recommendations harm your application. If you weren’t trying to find the answer, as evidenced by your inability to accept what two other posters have said, why ask the question?</p>
<p>This year Harvard has to go through an all-time high 35,000 applications, with a limited number of people to go through them. Adding to their workload is not going to work in your favor, especially since none of your additional recs seem to be outstanding.</p>
<p>That just means you sent in crappy original recs; that doesn’t mean you should send in 6. Just because Choice B is better than Choice A doesn’t mean either one alone isn’t better than Choice A and Choice B together.</p>
<p>The required 2 are understandable. The guidance counselor recommendation is required, and that’s different from the regular teacher recs IMO. The principal’s letter is your school’s policy, nbd. The writing one was a good move on your part. DON’T SEND IN ANY MORE. The ones you have now are fine, but if you send in too many, you risk making ALL of your recommendations look desperate.</p>
<p>I’m glad none of you read the post, aside from the thread title.
I sent in 5. One extra one, I asked for (the writing one) and the other extra one was required from my school (principal’s). I think it’s clear in my application that that’s the case, and both are under a page long so it’s fine.
And in the case that my counselor wanted to send in midyear updates, as I found out from the admissions office, they welcome it
You know, I don’t think they think like we do. Like “this will be the kiss of death” and all that over-dramatic nonsense. As long as it’s actually relevant and isn’t elsewhere on the application, they’ll gladly consider it. Not to say one should send in a psych evaluation detailing all aspects of his personality, but detailing important extra information that might give one an edge in admissions is always welcome, as I gathered.</p>
<p>I sent two teacher recs, one counselor rec, and one from my research mentor. But Im fairly sure my research mentor added a lot to my application, I think 6 is way too much.</p>
<p>Jimmy, sending in too many additional recs is not necessarily bad for the admissions office except to perhaps the few hired hands who will have to sort them, but it may be bad for you. </p>
<p>Think of it this way: an admissions officer has more applicant files to go through a night than you can imagine. To get through the work on a reasonable time scale, s/he’ll only spend a set amount of time on each case, unless something unusual catches his attention. When you have too many recommendations, with some of which adding nothing essential or interest-piquing, this takes away from the amount of time adcom spends on the other parts of your profile. </p>
<p>How would you feel if the person reading your file ends up spending most of the reviewing time meticulously reading everything your principal wrote about you, which is, hypothetically speaking, filled with positive but rather repeating, bland comments, decide subconsciously after that that you’re just another boring applicant, then went on to merely skimming that brilliant essay that you’ve spent so many hours on with already the perception in his mind that you’re boring? What would you rather have the adcom focus on, your accomplishments as conveyed through your personal statements and activities, or another long letter by your guidance counselor?</p>
<p>If your guidance counselor wants to update the admission office about your recent accomplishments, he can do that in a few simple sentences. No need for another full scale rec letter.</p>
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<p>Of course, but very likely done at the expense of some other part of your app.</p>
<p>I had sent six, as well. Similar to your circumstances, four were inevitable, while two were attributed to the fact that I had moved so frequently and were useful for clarification purposes. Given that four was a predetermined scenario in your case, and one is essentially an addendum to one of the four, the one extra shouldn’t be anything to concern yourself over if you feel it’s absolutely vital to your profile. However, other posters are correct in stating that admissions officers are limited in the time that can be spent on each profile.</p>
<p>I’m sure the admissions officer is smart enough to realize that my principal’s rec. is nothing special by the first 2 lines. It’s hard to get intrigued by it. My 2 essays, however, are pretty interesting, in my opinion, and don’t need to be read meticulously. They’re much like a small short story - reading them once quickly makes the necessary impact. I did that purposefully. So I really doubt my essays will be skimmed over in favor of my principal’s rec. And the writing recommendation would take 1 minute at most to read, as it’s so neatly organized (my English teacher, excellent at structuring no doubt.)</p>
<p>Well, I thank you for your post. It’s clear you read P#1 fully, and I personally think that 6 isn’t too much if they’re necessary, and are written clearly. I doubt I have much chance at Harvard in particular, quite honestly, but it would be great to get in nonetheless.</p>
<p>I’m currently finished applying to everywhere, so now all that’s left is to await Decisions Month (March) calmly. Or not so calmly.</p>
