in making a decision? Harvard looks for a human being not a test machine. Is this naive or reality?
For schools like H with their tiny admit rate, the rec letters and personal statements are two of the only ways to inject a human face into your profile. It’s hard to advocate for someone you don’t like or know. Thus, it’s crucial what you include in your application. 2 very strong rec letters. Not a bunch of stuff to water down the rest of your package
Many thanks. It really makes a lot of senses (if I am the AO). My son (Asian boy, you know what this mean…) with an one shot SAT I (2280), II (Math II 800, BioM 790, Chemistry 790, US history 700) and top 1% in a very competitive big public high school (>600 classmates). You see, he is not a typical Asian guy in the standard tests.
He has both essay and science awards in state to national level, graduate level research (said by his mentor) (first-author abstract in a coming international professional conference will be presented by him, first-author manuscript is being written for well-respected journal for submission but may not be published before next Spring), and significant other activities and community services with very good personalities with different peoples.
His counselor strongly recommends HC for his SCEA. I personally do not believe he has a reasonable good chance. But I also trust his counselor. This is why a little struggle/confusion in this matter. He is writing 3 essays for HC and will has presumably 3 super strong letters from teachers (English, math, US history) (in CC, HC can have 3 letters from teachers and 2 from others), 1 from counselor, 1 from community service supervisor and 1 from his bio medical research mentor. His career goal is physician scientist in the future…
This is once chance in a life time (SCEA). I appreciate any inputs in advance.
There is a huge difference between what he can provide versus what he should provide. In the case of recommendations, more does not equal better. If the supplemental recs provide no unique information than what is written in the teacher recs, it will only dilute the effectiveness of his application.
Thanks for your insights. To my best knowledge, the math teacher has known him since his 9th grade (in the teacher’s BC class) and EC/clubs supervised by the teacher who also loves his personality/character, the US history teacher taught his class last year and also was impressive his humanity side, the English teacher is his 10th teacher and said “this will be the first time I ever say this: You should accept xxx before someone else does.”, the community service supervisor is a government employee and very impressive my son’s leaderships, maturation and credibility and assigned a special project to him via accessing government’s computer system, the research mentor said his research is the PhD level. All those letters may talk about him as a person with each specific points/expert. The counselor may overall summarize his case. All presumably will be outstanding to stellar… Do you think is it OK to include all of those letters? Thanks again for your advice.
I would include the letter from the math teacher, the English teacher and the PhD, and skip all others .
Thanks for your suggestion. His mentor is a Professor (MD, PhD) in a top medical school said my son’s accomplishment of 2-year research is the PhD graduate level.
^^ THAT is a letter that will set him apart.
Your son should also mention, and perhaps submit, the paper he has written as first author, even if it is not yet published.
Has he received an expected publication date yet?
Why is the GC suggesting Harvard vs. other top schools? What does your son think about Harvard? Have you visited? Spoken with or listened to representatives?
Yes. He will send HC the manuscript which has been written to be supposedly submitted for publication in a good journal, but his mentor a big science guy wants my son’s first author manuscript to be published in more high impact journal (tier 1 presumably). So, my son and co-authors need to do more experiments… it is hard to say when this manuscript will be published. His mentor will write the detail situation in his letter. Your advice in this matter is highly appreciated.
By the way, his mentor graduated from Harvard Medical School many years ago… The manuscript sent to HC will likely be evaluated by professors. His mentor is the corresponding author who is very serious in this manuscript.
He visited HC when he was 3 years… He loves HC as many do. His research mentor and shadowing doctor both from HMS talked with him a lot of HC and HMS. His HS routinely 1 or 2 to HC yearly but all are girls in the past 10 years. His counselor probably believes my son is suitable for HC…
@J2H239, a lot of people have already given sound advice in this thread. But, at the risk of being redundant:
- Letters of recommendation are VERY important, for 2 reasons: (1) they are one of the best ways of getting a sense of an applicant as a person and "inject a human face into the profile", as @T26E4 notes; and (2) they are perhaps the least controlled or "filtered" part of the application. What someone else says confidentially about an applicant can be very revealing. There can be a big difference between a politely complimentary recommendation and one where the recommender really raves about an applicant, or speaks to qualities which don't necessarily come out in the rather sterile Common App. Good recommendations can both complement what an applicant says, and reinforce some key points. I think it's important to get letters from people who really know the applicant (as opposed to teachers in whose classes he/she may have excelled, but who don't necessarily know him as well), and to let them know what the applicant is "about", especially if they may not be familiar with some of the applicant's activities outside of school.
- Generally, 2 teacher recommendations (a math/science and a humanities/social sciences) plus GC is what schools want, plus at most 1 supplemental letter. As @skieurope notes, more does not equal better, and a supplemental letter that does not provide any unique perspective or new information will probably be more irksome than helpful.
In the case of your son, being an Asian male with a STEM focus puts him in a terrible demographic group - even worse if he is from California, which is full of incredibly talented Asian male STEM applicants. There are really only 2 things you’ve alluded to that might differentiate him:
- The quality and depth of his research. Doing PhD caliber research and having a major publication in the works shows depth of interest and commitment, and aptitude. So by all means get a supplemental letter from his MD/PhD research supervisor.
- His non-STEM activities and achievements. In particular, you mention that your son has won state/national level awards for essay writing. This is important - it makes him look different from all the other talented Asian male STEM applicants. He should make sure this stands out clearly in his application, and should make sure that his humanities/social science recommender can speak to his writing ability and present him as someone with a broad academic and intellectual background.
I hope this helps. Good luck!
I sincerely appreciate your informative comments which are really helpful not only for me but others who read your words. My son just told me all 4 letters are specificities with writers own observations and comments on him in different topics becasue all writers know him well more than at least 1 years and directly told him they would write stellar letters for him. His GC definitely enthusiastically recommends him for HC. It seems his is a good and smart boy and everyone around him likes him. Under this situation, is it useful at least no harmful to include all letters in his application? Thanks again.
3 teachers 1 community services supervisor 1 mentor and 1 GC
^^ Admissions Officers have about 12 minutes to read a student’s application, which includes looking over their transcript, course rigor and grades, looking at their test scores, extracurricular activities, reading the Common Application Personal Statement, Harvard’s required Supplemental Essay about an extracurricular activity, Harvard’s optional Supplemental Essay which many student’s submit, reading the guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report, 2 (two) teacher recommendations and interview report. And then they have to make notes – all within that 12 minutes.
If your son submits 6 recommendations, an Admissions Officer will have to skim everything – meaning they will read the first paragraph and last paragraph of his essays and do the same with each recommendation. So, in the end an Admissions Office will get a watered down view of your son, By submitting so much extra material he is doing himself a real disservice no matter what wonderful things everyone is saying about him.
IMHO, your son should submit the required 2 teacher recommendations, the guidance counselor’s Secondary School report and 1 (ONE) supplemental recommendation, probably from the mentor. Anything else is overkill and will lesson the importance of the required recommendations. Keep it simple; less is more.
Five is too much. Keep two teachers and the mentor, drop the other two
@gibby, that’s pretty much what I also said. More will just dilute the impact.
^^ Correct. But, now @J2H239 has 5 experienced posters (you, me, skieurope, menloparkmom and T26E4 with a combined posting of over 45,000 posts) saying the exact same thing: DON"T submit more than 1 (ONE) additional recommendation. If the OP chooses to do otherwise, he’s been forewarned.
Thanks for your (inside) comments on this uncertain but important issue faced by highly competitive applicants. Your and other constructive advices will be followed. Thanks again.