How many Letters of Recommendation?

Hello everyone,

I had a quick question about the number of letters of recommendation that should be sent to Harvard. On their website, it says to just send two teacher evaluations, but on the Common App, it has a maximum of 3 teacher recs and 2 additional recs. Currently, I have two teacher recs and one outside rec. I want to add on another teacher rec (this teacher will present something new about me), but I also don’t want to make my application too “thick” for the adcom.

What plan of action would be preferred?

Thanks in advance!

The preferred plan of action is what Harvard requires. Keep in mind that Admissions Officers have about 12 minutes to read a student’s application, which includes looking over their transcript, course rigor and grades, looking at their test scores, extracurricular activities, reading the Common Application Personal Statement, Harvard’s required Supplemental Essay about an extracurricular activity, Harvard’s optional Supplemental Essay which many student’s submit, reading the guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report, two teacher recommendations and interview report. And then they have to make notes – all within that 12 minutes.

The more recommendations you submit, the more there is a chance that an Admissions Officer will have to skim everything – meaning they will read the first paragraph and last paragraph of your essays and do the same with each recommendation. So, in the end an Admissions Office will get a watered down view of who you are.

IMHO, you should submit the required 2 teacher recommendations, and the guidance counselor’s Secondary School report. You could submit 1 (ONE) supplemental recommendation – but only if that person is going to mention something absolutely completely different. Anything else is overkill and will lesson the importance of the required recommendations. Keep it simple; less is more.

Agreed. Just because you can submit additional recs does not mean that you should. At most, you should submit one additional rec and only if the supplemental rec adds something that is not covered elsewhere.

In my opinion, it is best to send in what the actual Harvard website is asking for. My son did not send in anything extra. He was accepted back in 2008 and also attended HLS. It’s easy to get caught up in wanting to show them everything positive about you, but it may also show that you can’t follow simple directions by following what their website says. Also, it shows that you are familiar with the website and the school.

Best of luck!