<p>My daughter is applying ED to UPenn, assuming she can get her supplement and commonapp essays finished this week (not that I'm stressing...). She had asked a UPenn professor for a rec; the prof said to notify him when she submitted her app, and that he would then send a letter to Admissions. Sorry, I haven't looked at the commonapp form myself -- but I understand there's room for 2 + 1 additional rec . . .</p>
<p>She already has 3 teacher recs, and one from her guidance counselor. Does it seem that this rec would be outside the commonapp --- and if so, would the admissions people review it? Or should she omit one of her other recs (which she doesn't want to do) and add him instead? </p>
<p>And if she adds him to her UPenn app --- can she remove him later, if she doesn't get in and needs to submit apps to the other schools she's thinking of? Confused! </p>
<p>Maybe this is a question for UPenn's admission's office, but since it's the weekend, I thought I'd try here! Thanks for any advice...</p>
<p>Here is the way to think about recommendations:
The guidance counselor one doesn’t really count as one of the recommendations (just a different type of form)
Penn asks for TWO teacher recommendations per their application page. They do not want three. Colleges are not looking for extra paperwork to review, they have thousands of applications to review and don’t want an extra teacher recommendation. If they wanted 3 they would ask for 3. So she should cut that down to two.
One external recommendation that is relevant to the school is okay. So her recommendation from a Penn professor, assuming they know her well, is fine. If he sends it directly to admissions, that is also fine, they will put it with her file and review it. If she has an application number or something once she applies, she should probably provide that to him when she tells him her app is in. Just makes it easier for them to match his letter with her app. Don’t worry that it is not electronic, they still get some paper recs from some sources for various reasons and know what to do with those.</p>
<p>Most likely the prof will send his letter directly to admissions outside the CA system. He won’t necessarily want your D using his rec to apply elsewhere and it will likely be tailored specifically for Penn. At least that’s the way it worked for our D who has a rec from a prof (at a different school) and he’s sending it only to his own institution, not through CA.</p>
<p>Niceday and intparent – I appreciate your responses. Makes sense. </p>
<p>About her HS teacher recs- she picked her physics, statistics and English teachers. She’s planning to study engineering… Is it better to get recs from teachers in line with math/science, meaning she should omit the English teacher, or should she try to guess who will write the best rec for her?</p>