<p>optional letter of rec okay for swarthmore? I have a phenomenal letter of rec from my journalism advisor. I know certain schools like NYU just toss the extra letter. thanks all</p>
<p>Yeah. Not the end of the world if it supports something on the application. My daughter sent an extra recommendation -- from the director of her main EC community service activity. The activity had nothing to do with school, so neither of the two requested recs addressed that interest.</p>
<p>Actually, I think the school sent a third teacher rec, too. A teacher had written it without being asked -- kind of an embarrassing situation, actually. The guidance counselor sent it in with a post-it note apologizing, but explaining that, under the circumstances, she couldn't say "no" to the teacher.</p>
<p>okay, great. and that's hilarious. your daughter must be amazing if teachers are writing recs w/o being asked for them.</p>
<p>Nah.</p>
<p>It's a relatively small school and there were a handful of seniors that the teachers were quite fond of. I think the teacher just assumed she's ask him to write a rec. She would have, but two other teachers made more sense because they had not only taught her, but supervised EC activities. </p>
<p>It put her in a bit of an awkward situation, so she just thanked him and let the guidance counselor sort it all out.</p>