Hello everyone. I know no colleges require 3 teacher recommendations but will they even look at it if I do submit them. I know my counselor has already written me one and I’ve requested two of my teachers to write me one. The only reason I want to know is because I asked another teacher to write me a recommendation for a scholarship and was hoping they could submit the same one to colleges if they could.
Some colleges will accept a supplemental LoR; others will not. What a college will accept is usually listed on their admissions website. That said, those that do accept an extra rec suggest that it come from a coach/mentor/EC leader/basically anyone other that another teacher. The rationale is that the supplemental rec would tell them something about the applicant that the teacher recs do not. There are only so many recs that an AO wants to read extolling how bright a student you are.
Given that AOs have a limited amount of time to read each application, be careful with the extras. More stuff does not mean that more time is spent on the application; it just means that other items may be glossed over as a result.
There is an old adage in admissions: “The thicker the file, the thicker the kid.”
See the video on recommendations from the Yale website. https://admissions.yale.edu/advice-putting-together-your-application.
It is unlikely that a college admission officer will spend more time on your application just because you submitted extra recommendations. So time spent reading a third teacher recommendation might mean less time spent on your essay, going over your activities etc. Even if a college accepts a third teacher recommendation think long and hard about if each of the three letters will add new and different information to your application.