I checked with my counselor this morning and one of the teachers I had asked for a recommendation letter didn’t fill out the form (or whatever it is) correctly on Naviance and thus sent it to ALL the schools I was applying to instead of just NorthEastern. I know it wasn’t a particularly good letter (the teacher doesn’t know me that well) and although I am sure it’s not “bad” I rather not have the colleges read it, especially since most of the colleges I am applying to a pretty competitive and “extra” recommendation letters are only wanted if they significantly add to application. Should I send the colleges an email asking them to disregard said letter? Can I even do that?
So you are Ok with Northeastern seeing a not so great rec letter? Welcome to NUIn!
Well, I feel horrible.
I don’t know how good the letter is but it is simply the one I am the least confident of. But I am a natural pessimist when it comes to these things anyway. I send it to NorthEastern not because I didn’t care about that acceptance/rejection (It is a fantastic school and I would very happy there) but because I was too embarrassed to tell the teacher that I wasn’t going to use his letter at all. My stats are borderline for a lot of schools but on the higher end for NorthEastern, so I decided to send the pretty-good-but-probably-not-Hemingway letter there because I thought I would still have a pretty good shot at admissions despite of it. Although, it doesn’t matter now I guess. Sorry if I offended you. My question was badly worded.
From now on I’ll think more carefully before I post
I would think that sending an email and asking them to disregard the letter would make it seem as though you were trying to hide whatever was in it. It would only make me want to read it more and to think why you wouldn’t want to have another recommendation.
Bottom line, admissions officers see mediocre letters of recommendation all the time and have likely learned to disregard any that don’t really offer anything to your overall application.
Thanks for your reply! I don’t really care if they read the letter. But I am worried that sending three letters when they specify two or two when they specify one will just clutter up my application and give the impression that I think myself above the rules. I have emailed one school and they told me that it’s against their policy to remove a sent item from an applicaton file. I responded, asking if perhaps it is possible to put a note stating that it wasn’t meant to be sent, but it’s a longshot at best and they haven’t replied yet.
My counselor’s horror stories about admissions officers automatically rejecting applications that did not strictly adhere to the guidelines may be causing me to panic a bit.
I would not worry about it. If it’s not a horrible letter, just let it be. It’ll be fine and not a deal breaker.
Okay, thank you. You’re probably right and I am simply overthinking things.