What do Harvard and Yale think of letters of rec? They talk about supplementary letters as “allowed but not encouraged.” Does that mean too many letters will count against me, even if they’re from a variety of people? I think 3 or 4 is the most I would send, outside of the counselor rec, 3 being teachers and 1 being high profile mentor. Is this too much?
Also, what is the purpose of the counselor rec? How do I make sure that it goes well? Don’t really see the point in it since one’s contact with a guidance counselor is not prolonged in like daily meetings and learnings etc.
Yes. What it means is that Harvard and Yale want to know how you compare to a classroom of students. They want to know, in a crowed classroom of your peers, are you shy or extraverted? Is your hand constantly raised with thoughtful questions, or do you need to be called upon? Are you a leader of classroom discussions or the follower of those discussions? What will your teachers remember most about you after you have graduated? Are you kind and respectful? How do you compare to all other students your teachers have had in their career.? Are you respected by your fellow student’s and faculty? Do you have the potential to become a future leader? Do you have the potential to change the world? They want answers to those questions. Your research mentor’s opinion of you, or you coaches opinion, or your bosses opinion, is rather secondary to what your teachers have to say.
If you send in more than one extra letter of recommendation that waters-down what your teachers have said about you. So, I would counsel you to follow their advice and NOT send in more than one extra LoR to either HYP or S.
FWIW: Your guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR) is very important, as your GC is asked to rate the rigor of your course load as compared to all other college bound student’s at your high school. They also report on the highest GPA in your class, the number of AP classes, whether student’s are restricted in taking AP classes, your rank etc. And they can do all that without having one conversation with you. See page 2 of SSR: http://ugadm.northwestern.edu/documents/UG_Admissions_SecondarySchoolReport.pdf
@gibby is absolutely correct. More than one extra LOR may impact your application, but not in a good way. In some cases, and this is one, more is not better.
Colleges are very cognizant that many GC notes are, by their nature, flimsy. This won’t be held against you. My recommendation for you is 2x teacher LORs, 1 counselor rec/letter and one supplemental from an outside souce that can discuss something NOT similar to any of the first three LORs. (e.g having a 3rd teacher won’t likely do anything – maybe a coach, clergyman, employer, research mentor). The risk you run by submitting additional LORs that simply repeat the others is you dilute the strength of your package. Don’t want to go there.
DS had one additional letter, from a mentor who could describe the tenacity with which S approached the lab for an internship closed to HS students, how he earned the confidence of grad students to provide software critical to their thesis, and the letter very objectively rated S’s Physics and CS chops. The letter basically stated that the department head would be pleased to have him at his school (an Ivy).
A great letter, but DS debated whether it should be submitted to Yale (he would definitely have submitted to the other Ivy). He did ultimately submit it with no ill effects.
@T26E4 That’s good to know - I’ve only known my GC for one year since my old one left. The first one was terrible, and the current one is pretty good, but I don’t know how good of a writer she is likely to be, and looking at the common app form for the GC, it may be underwhelming but we’ll see. Fingers crossed! And thanks for those quotas, that’s what I was thinking anyway.
@gibby If the highest GPA in the class is WAY higher than mine, is that doing to be an immediate reject? Because the people in my grade are ridiculous and care about nothing other than their GPA, which leaves me with a stronger ‘human’ side and better essays, but ultimately they have the better transcript. How will this work in the eyes of the committee? “He’s not number 1 so rejected” or no?
It depends if you are #3 or #23—how far down the rankings are you? If you are in the top 3%, that’s good. Of course your class size is a crucial factor too.
As fauve said, it all depends. If those other students have also taken a rigorous course load, colleges will notice that they have excelled while you have not done as well. Keep in mind that Harvard is an academic institution that seeks the best and brightest from your high school. Are you one of the best and brightest from your high school? Does your high school use naviance? Has anyone from your high school been admitted to Harvard with your GPA, regardless of test scores? That’s going to be the telling factor more so than what any CC poster says.