<p>Does University of Pennsylvania accept extra recommendations from people you've worked with outside of school? for example, I know Yale discourages extra recs. </p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>you need two letter of recs. and you can have one extra rec.</p>
<p>Yeah, so they need two letters of recommendation from teachers, and one from your counselor.
They discourage extra rec letters unless they show something that your application doesn't, so anything non school related should do that - volunteering or work for instance.</p>
<p>you can only have one outside rec? Great. I had more than that.</p>
<p>How</a> to Handle Supplementary Recommendations - Ask The Dean</p>
<p>Read that. Especially this part:</p>
<p>Depending on where your daughter is applying, she may find that a
polite endorsement with a string of predictable, albeit complimentary,
adjectives ("responsible," "hard-working," "dedicated") is better
stuffed in a drawer than put in the mail. At the most selective
schools, unsolicited references that don't make the candidate stand
out in a crowd could do more harm than good.</p>
<p>The only reason I can see to have an outside rec is if there is a truly outstanding story to tell. Almost everyone applying to Penn will have done community service or something or could get a rec from an outside sports coach, drama/singing teacher etc.</p>
<p>Obviously, the Dean's point is a very, very good one. I know Wharton people who worked or interned at corporations, hospitals etc in high school. and got glowing recommendations that truly highlighted their abilities that went above and beyond what is normally expected for a high school student. In a case like that, the outside rec is definitely a positive that would make you stand out from the crowd. A good check would be to ask yourself what the likelihood is that other applicants could get a rec that's 90% the same. If they can... probably won't help your app.</p>