Hello All!!!
I am deffered. Thus, I’ve written a letter of continued interest, but also want to attach an additional letter of recommendation, which I believe will shed new light onto my candidacy. However, I don’t want to violate FERPA regulations. I’ve agreed to sign off my FERPA on common App, yet my writer has sent me the letter to attach to my “one document update.” Should I just attach it to the bottom of my letter, or should I, towards the end of the letter, be like "below is a letter of recommendation from my friend and mentor “blah blah”. Should I leave his email and cell phone number in the letter?
HELPPP
Thanks :)))
I would say to submit the extra recommendation through common app. However, do not mention that the person who wrote it is a friend, because they don’t want to see a rec letter from just a friend of yours. A mentor would sound better, but how effective will this new letter be? How will this mentor “shed new light” on you as an applicant?
I agree with @Dreamforivy, that the letter should be a significant additional piece of information. Be sure it’s not a teacher, but instead is a boss, coach, internship head etc.
Can’t you give the letter to your guidance counselor to submit? It’s much better if it goes through him/her. Then in your letter of continued interest, you could write, “My guidance counselor has submitted an additional letter of rec through the common app.” You could leave his email and cell in your letter, but nothing more. I would definitely not attach the rec to your letter; letters through you will most likely not be considered.
@dreamforivy @connections How do you submit an additional letter of recommendation through the common app? How does the school know to look for it?
Also, if the letter is being written for a particular school, like “this kid would fit into U Penn so well blah blah” rather than a generic “this kid is great,” what happens on the common app? Does it only go to the one school, or does it automatically go to all of them? How does it work?
@redpoodles, you usually never want a letter of rec to be “this kid would fit into Penn.” It should be a general letter, endorsing the student’s abilities and qualifications and how the letter writer knows them.
Penn has an option to add an additional letter of rec from a non-teacher. Each school is different. You see Penn’s optino after you go through the application process on the Penn part of the Common App. A guidance counselor should be able to help here.
As far as how the school knows—this is what I was suggesting above, to mention an additional letter has been added when you send them a letter expressing continued interest (only if the letter of rec adds something new). In my S’s case, he sent the third letter of rec along with his entire package at the same time.
@connections We’re taking a different approach. My D got two general letters but her third letter is being sent to one school only and will talk about how she does in a particular subject (her intended major) and thrives in a particular atmosphere that matches that school. This recommender offered to personalize it for the school (a small LAC) and we are grateful he is taking the time for this. She doesn’t need another general letter. My concern was how to make sure it doesn’t accidentally get sent to any other school.
I did figure out in the Common App you have to “assign” each extra recommender to a particular school. It still feels risky though.
Whether one can submit an additional rec through the common app or not, I would not. I can’t speak for Penn specifically, but I don’t think most colleges go back to the CA if they have everything they need. I would contact Penn directly on the “how.”
^^^yes, it makes me nervous, although, midterm grades were submitted through Naviance and all of the schools got those, and that’s how they would be sent by our school. But you have to link the Common App to Naviance and send the request through the Common App for it to go through Naviance. We gave the recommender a stamp to put on his official envelope if he preferred to do it that way (but I’ve heard schools consider that a pain as they have to scan it). I’ll let the guidance counselor sort it out. We certainly aren’t the first to attempt this!
@redpoodles, my advice was only for Penn. Each school has its own preferences.
@skieurope, I can speak for Penn specifically–when you go through their Penn common app portion, it specifically requests that the guidance counselor submit he optional additional rec through Penn’s own portion of Common App and specifically asks that it is a non-academic letter of rec. It is in their directions. To clarify, I’m not talking about the Common App portion that is 'common ’ to all schools–I’m talking about the portion that is specific to the specific school (in this case Penn), so maybe we’re talking about the same thing. This would not be seen by other colleges. It’s not risky to do this, although I totally understand if people are worried it is.
I personally would not have a letter that is specific to one school only. It is not necessary. It may reassure folks that my own kids have been admitted to Penn, Williams, Northwestern, and others, and they’ve never had a letter of rec specific to the school, nor have any of the students I’ve advised.
Good luck to all.
@connections I am aware of that. However, we are not talking about submitting a rec at the time one sends the application; the question is sending an additional LoR 6 weeks later. As I said, this may be the procedure that Penn still wants followed, but if I were the applicant, I would still call Penn to make sure.
@skieurope yes, I agree, it would be good to double check with Penn. I had suggested that the person give the letter of rec to the guidance counselor to take care of (after finding out the recommended course from Penn).