<p>I'm wondering if it would be ok to submit a 3rd teacher recommendation. I've gotten 2 teachers from Junior year, and one of my senior year teachers has agreed to do a brief rec. This senior teacher is economics and my junior ones are english and chemistry, so it should bring something new to the table. I don't want to be annoying to the admissions officers by submitting an extra rec, but I think it is kind of important since I want to go into that field. </p>
<p>The only thing is that I am already getting an additional rec. letter from someone outside of school for community service, and I am reluctant to submit TWO extra letters for fear of being annoying. Would this be ok?</p>
<p>This seems to be a frequently asked question lately.</p>
<p>I don't think fear of being "annoying" should be a factor at all in your decision to submit or not to submit supplemental materials. The people reading your application are professional admissions officers, and their job is to read the application that you craft and submit. They do not get annoyed when you follow their stated policy of allowing any supplemental materials that you'd like to send -- if it were a problem, they'd place a limit on the amount of supplemental material accepted.</p>
<p>I think it should be totally up to you as the applicant: do you think these additional letters will provide a better picture of who you are as a person? If they're redundant, I don't think they should be sent -- not because the admissions officers would be angry or annoyed, because they won't be, but because it's not helpful to keep repeating the same points in the application.</p>
<p>Scientists have a term called "grantsmanship" -- the skills that you need to craft a strong, pithy, on-point, fundable grant application. I think that undergraduate applicants need to have a dose of grantsmanship themselves to make an application that highlights their strengths and makes a strong argument for admission. Remember that the admissions officers have never met you, and they're relying only on your application to get a sense of who you are and why you should be admitted to MIT. If your extra letters help make that case, then send them. If they don't, then don't.</p>