<p>I’m applying ED and I see on the Common App that 2 teacher recommendations are required and 4 are accepted. Would it be beneficial to do all 4?</p>
<p>Also, my employer from a summer internship said he would be very happy to write a letter of rec for me. Is there any way I can put this in my app? </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Only do all four if they are from classes you did extremely well in. When I visited, Brown stated that you should only submit recommendations from teachers whose classes you did well in. They do not want a recommendation about how you struggled through a class and worked really hard (even though that shows what kind of person you are).</p>
<p>You can “invite” your employer to upload his/her recommendation to common app (in the “other recommenders” section), but I think it might be easier just to mail a copy to each school, especially if your school uses Naviance edocs. There is no offline form needed for recommendations not written by teachers.</p>
<p>Alright, thanks. However, under the Brown Common App there is only a section for teachers. Does this mean they will not take an additional rec?</p>
<p>You’re right! But it probably will not hurt to send it anyway by mail. I would give admissions a call and see what they say. Common App has been having all sorts of issues lately.</p>
<p>Ok, i’ll do that then. Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>I would stick with just 2 teachers unless there is some exceptional circumstance, my daughter sent 3 where she did 2 extra years coursework on a specific topic with the 3rd teacher and four years of fieldwork and research. I later realized that she could have sent that one instead of the science teacher but we thought of it as an elective. So maybe she should have just done 2. Sending more when there are no special circumstances is just too much to ask them to read.</p>
<p>But if you want to send the 3rd from the internship, I would normally say that’s fine, but it makes me wonder if they don’t want those since there is not an option on the CA. it will be another perspective, hopefully they will have something meaningful to say but you can’t really control that.</p>
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<p>One of my son’s recommendations was from a college professor; it was especially useful in his case because he was graduating high school in 3 years and wanted to address the possible question of being younger and working well with older classmates. But his high school was set up with Naviance as a portal to Common App recommendations and a recommendation from outside the school did not work in the system as it had been set up.</p>
<p>So all of the letters of recommendations were printed out and mailed. That worked out fine, although it was more work for the letter writers – be sure that they love you enough to not be put out by such a request, especially if you’re sending out a lot of applications.</p>
<p>So it’s technically feasible. But 4 recommendations will not necessarily help you any more than 3 will (including the guidance counselor). Rather, it’s important that major questions are addressed in the letters that are sent: Was this person a top student? Did he work well in groups? Could he teach and explain concepts to his less-talented classmates? Did he show a passion for learning?</p>
<p>The best way to get such letters is to prepare a reference sheet for your letter writers about your overall achievements, the questions you would like them to address and a polite request to add specifics that they have observed that strengthens those statements.</p>
<p>Your internship could easily be addressed in your guidance counselor’s letter and perhaps then tied to various school organizations that you led or participated in, painting a broad overall picture of a multi-faceted individual. If you accomplish these objectives with the 3 normal recommendations, you would generally be better off because reading time is limited and the more “concentrated” the summaries as to the overall picture, the clearer that overview will be.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if each letter writer has only seen one facet of your abilities, then an extra letter might be the best solution.</p>
<p>See the logic in what Lorem writes, how they made that decision.</p>
<p>The point is teachers who can discuss the skills and qualities adcoms need to hear about. At Brown’s level, of course that should be a teacher from a class you did well in- but it can include info about how hard you worked, how you overcame initial challenges. </p>
<p>Just qualifying as the teacher who gave your best grade (and loves you) is incomplete advice. He or she from may teach a class that’s irrelevant to your proposed major. Or, could be a nincompoop when it comes to communicating to adcoms. You need a wise decision. </p>
<p>Agree with Lorem also that the internship letter needs to be carefully considered. The detail should be college-relevant. Note how BP’s daughter had a uniquely deep experience.</p>
<p>Btw, you can mail in the extra letter, even if the others go online.</p>
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<p>LF is right: you need to also consider the recommendation writer. If you aced a class, yet the recommendation writer communicates in poor ungrammatical English or emphasizes how hard you worked over your intellectual ability, it could backfire on you: the kid in high school who merely worked hard may have already been functioning at maximum capacity and would have a nervous breakdown in a select college where the workload per class is often much more intense.</p>
<p>Chose wisely, a poorly-written or poorly thought-out recommendation could hurt your acceptance chances.</p>
<p>I’m sorry if I did not make that clear in my original post - it is extremely important to choose you recommenders wisely. I was merely trying to say that Brown would want an excellent recommendation from the teacher who teaches a class you did really well in over an excellent recommendation from a teacher who teaches a class you struggled in.</p>
<p>Typically only do the 4 if it will strengthen your application. They would prefer two strong letters to 4 average ones. Just make sure they would really help your app rather than just make it longer.</p>
<p>I need to add a question to this thread. I hope I am doing this appropriately! My D is a 13 year student of classical ballet at a regional pre-professional company. She did apply ED to Brown and was deferred. Since Brown does not have a place to submitted an online additional rec, should we have the Director submit a rec by mail. Is this a “unique” experience that would benefit from an additional rec? Her Exec/Artistic Director has already submitted online recommendations for my D’s other schools that allow it through the Comm App. (we have not submitted the other schools regular decision apps yet, but will soon)
We don’t know what the Director has written about my D, but has worked with her for many years and hours and seen her struggle with ballet and persevered. The director is a decent writer.
Any thoughts?
Thanks!</p>