<p>Hey there, my daughter is applying to Brown. We see they want 2 academic teachers and a counselor which she has. Online, they say they will take another recommendation if it’s someone who has unique insight. However, on the common app itself, it has 4 slots for “teachers” and none for “others.” </p>
<p>Basically, our daughter has an extensive and unique theatre background for which her school teachers have limited knowledge. She has a recommendation from an artistic director and long-time mentor who we feel would give some cohesiveness to D’s experiences as well as perspective on the caliber of the work itself.</p>
<p>Our problem is that while this person has been a “teacher” at points in her life, this person is really an “other” and it’s to our daughter’s benefit for her to to be an “other” on all her other common app applications where schools limit to 2 “teachers” but will allow an “other.”</p>
<p>Anyone with knowledge of experience in this? Is this something to ask the admissions office or the Brown theatre department? I saw that they can still submit through mail but there were no directions in how they wanted that handled.</p>
<p>It’s a good idea to approach the school directly about this. Our D had this problem, although not at Brown. She reached out to her admissions rep at the one school that did not allow “other” recommenders and has arranged to have the recommender email the rec directly to the rep at that one school. For the other schools our D has invited her through common app as an “other.”</p>
<p>Ah, good to know that there might be another way (at least at a some schools.) I’ll tell D and hopefully she’ll have luck when contacting the admissions office. Thanks for the input niceday</p>
<p>I get the sense Brown’s Theatre faculty is pretty hands-off with regard admissions. If you do contact admissions, look on Brown’s site and find the officer assigned to your region and shoot him or her an email. Or, I would just send it. From the Brown alumni site:</p>
<p>In general, one extra recommendation above and beyond your primary letters is fine, but it should meet a fairly high standard: 1) it should be very strong; 2) it should give the reader information about you that is not otherwise available in your file; and 3) it should not be from a source that the admission reader will regard as inherently biased (family member, caregiver, family friend) or irrelevant (someone of importance who doesn’t actually know you). For example, it might come from a mentor, a coach, or an employer who knows you extremely well and can speak to strengths or qualities you display outside the classroom. Or it could be from a teacher in a third area that really should be represented. Just be sure that a third recommendation is truly justified, or you run the risk of annoying the already-overloaded admission reader.</p>