<p>I have in mind 1 Guidance Counselor and 2 Teachers (H biology and APUSH) but there are 1-2 more people that I'm thinking of because we had a great relationship not only as student to teacher but also as person to person. </p>
<p>I tried to look for it all over the internet and even some college websites but all they say is get some letters of recommendation to meet part of the requirement. </p>
<p>Is there an exact number that I have to follow? If not, how many do people usually send?</p>
<p>Yes, two is the number that Yale requests for teachers (in addition to GC recommendation). See FAQ for sending more than that.</p>
<p>If you feel the need to submit extra information, you may ask one additional recommender to write on your behalf. Please do not solicit this additional letter unless you feel it will add substantially to your application. The writer should know you well personally or have mentored you closely in some capacity. Please ask that person to include the following at the top of their letter: your full, legal name as it appears in your application, the name and location of your high school, and your date of birth. The letter should be labeled “Supplementary” to avoid confusion.</p>
<p>[Frequently</a> Asked Questions - Applying to Yale College | Yale College Admissions](<a href=“Applying to Yale College | Yale College Undergraduate Admissions”>Applying to Yale College | Yale College Undergraduate Admissions)</p>
<p>Also, for who you should solicit see the following:</p>
<p>Who should write my teacher recommendations?</p>
<p>Your recommenders must be able to write about your recent work in rigorous academic subjects. We strongly encourage you to submit recommendations from 11th and 12th grade teachers. Yale has an extremely competitive applicant pool, so it’s probably unwise to submit a recommendation from a favorite 9th grade teacher or from a coach or chorus director unless he or she has also taught you recently in an academic course.</p>
<p>Yale doesn’t require that these recommendations come from teachers of particular subjects. It’s a good idea, however, to have the two letters come from teachers of two different subjects. Choose teachers who know you well and can give us a sense of your academic and personal strengths.</p>
<p>As an FYI, my son sent two from his AP Calculus and AP Biology teachers.</p>
<p>Does the supplementary rec. letter have a max limit as far as length is concerned?</p>
<p>You should have letters sent by teachers who LOVE you person to person, and are not overwhelmed by a ton of other LORs so that they can spend time on yours. If the 2 extra teachers love you so much, then why are you asking your H-bio and APUSH teachers to write them? D sent 3 LORs - 1 AP Eng Lang , 1 AP Span - but sent a 3rd from her theater teacher (whom she had for 4 years) because she wanted to major in theater but the schools wanted the first 2 LORs in academic subjects.</p>
<p>Some schools have exact numbers for LORs. Other schools are vague.
Supp LOR is same form as reg LOR; it’s part of the common app.</p>
<p>If you send a supplementary rec, it should have something to say about you that’s different from your teacher recs. Both of my kids sent a supplementary rec from a teacher at a summer program that their teachers in school couldn’t have written. You might have somebody you work with at a charity, or doing research, or at a job, and such a person might have something to say about you that your teachers can’t. Note that this is about what the recommender can say about YOU, not about himself. With few exceptions, the fact that your family knows an influential person will not help unless that person can write something specific about YOU.</p>
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<p>Please search/read more carefully, the vast majority of college websites state very specifically how many and what type of LORs they require/recommend. Y for instance:</p>
<p>[Application</a> Instructions & Components | Yale College Admissions](<a href=“http://admissions.yale.edu/instructions]Application”>http://admissions.yale.edu/instructions)</p>
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<p>See lower on the page for specifics on teacher and GC LORs.</p>
<p>Y address supplemental LORs here:</p>
<p>[Supplementary</a> Materials | Yale College Admissions](<a href=“http://admissions.yale.edu/supplementary#recs]Supplementary”>http://admissions.yale.edu/supplementary#recs)</p>
<p>Above all else, Yale is an academic institution. Unless your additional recommendation is from someone who knows how you perform in the classroom, an additional letter could work against you by watering down your (otherwise) stellar teacher recs. Sometimes ‘less’ is ‘more’!</p>
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I don’t really agree with this. I think a supplemental recommendation is probably best if it highlights something you do outside the classroom. Of course, it should be stellar, too. As an example, my son’s supplemental rec was from the teacher at a summer program for music composition. I guess you could call that the classroom, in a way, but none of his regular high school teachers would have been able to write it.</p>
<p>I agree with Hunt. Your GPA and SATs convey your academic ability. Your LORs are more to convey your personal qualities in a similar way that your essay does. If your LOR says that you got a A and you work hard, then it’s not really helpful in shedding light on your personality. If 2 LORs say you got a A and you work hard and you add a 3rd academic LOR that says the same thing, then it’s not helpful at all. A 3rd LOR from arts, research, work, sports may shed light on your personality.</p>
<p>I do agree with you, Gibby, that if you are not judicious in deciding whether to send a 3rd LOR, you may water down your app.</p>
<p>^^ Being judicious is the key. See: [Advice</a> on Putting Together Your Application | Yale College Admissions](<a href=“Advice on Putting Together Your Application | Yale College Undergraduate Admissions”>Advice on Putting Together Your Application | Yale College Undergraduate Admissions)</p>
<p>“Supplementary materials can provide broader context to some parts of your application, but they can just as often be superfluous and distracting. For example, a letter from someone who supervised your extracurricular research project may answer important questions about the work you’ve done. But a third recommendation that raves about you, just as your other letters do, will not necessarily enhance your application. In fact, it may dilute the effect of the two required recommendations.”</p>
<p>What about a letter of recommendation from a doctor that I have been shadowing for 2 years? I’ve known him for more than 10 years of my life, as he is a family friend and doctor.</p>
<p>Although you have known the family friend/doctor for more than ten years, that does not matter – at least in terms of admissions. What matters is the research/clinical studies you have performed with the MD over the past two years. That is where judiciousness comes in.</p>
<p>Right–what you don’t want is a rec that says, “I’ve known Haphazard and his family for many years, and he’s a fine young man.”</p>