I’ll be applying to medium competitive schools (BU, UMass Amherst, URI). I’m not a great student, B- average but mostly AP/honors classes. My teachers will write me good recommendation letters, nothing great like the ones I can get from outside of school. I have potentially 5 additional outside of school college recs that have been offered. I know all would write me amazing recommendations, I’m just wondering if at a certain point it becomes too many.
Look at it this way–college admissions officers read thousands and thousands of applications, including rec letters. If you impose seven or eight letters on them, they’re unlikely to read all of them, and they won’t be too psyched about taking the time to read all of them if they do.
At the very most, IF the college explicitly states that it’s okay, send in ONE additional rec letter beyond what’s required. Pick the one that shows the most about you that they can’t glean from your teachers’ recs.
Generally the rule is two teacher recs and a counselor rec, and maybe at most one outside rec. Two is possible but really pushing it because they don’t have endless hours sifting through all your recs and are primarily interested in your academic engagement.
BU is much more competitive than medium. It’s actually really selective.
Follow the school’s admissions instruction. Most of the schools my daughter visited said to not send in more than requested and that additional information would not be considered.
n+2 (where n is the number the college requires) is too many in 99.9999% of applications. If a particular college specifically states not to send in extra recs, then n+1 is too many.
An extra rec is only beneficial if it says something that they other recs don’t To build upon what @awesomepolyglot said, an AO will send 10 minutes or less on an application. Sending extra material will not get extra reading time; it will mineral result in an AO skimming over other parts of your package.
At some point, it looks like a desperate attempt to beef up an otherwise weak application.
I would go with 2 + the school letteer.
I’ve been on a bunch of college tours/info sessions. At each info session, if a parent or prospective applicant asked about additional recommendation letters, the AO invariably got a pained expression on his/her face, and said something like, please, think of how many applications we read. Not that I feel terribly sorry for AO’s (the ball is in their court, not our kids’) but I can’t imagine doing something on an application that would leave them aggrieved.
If B- is a 2.7 GPA them BU is pretty much out of reach regardless of letters. UMass Amherst would be a reach.
3 is too many
If the college tells you exactly how many they want, follow their instructions exactly. Otherwise, I’d only send in one extra. Keep the people outside of school on your list of references that you can attach to your resume.
I think it has been posted here before: “The thicker the file, the thicker the kid.”
Agree with the good advice others have given. Have to ask about this: “I have potentially 5 additional outside of school college recs that have been offered. I know all would write me amazing recommendations”
How do these people know you - and how much have you interacted? And - most importantly, what would they say about you that your teachers wouldn’t?