My son has two recommendations from college professors of summer classes. The Common App system seems to allow 3 “Teacher” recommenders per college app, but he would like to submit recommendations from two high school teachers and the two professors. Should the professors be listed as “Other” from the Type pulldown menu from which the choices are Counselor, Teacher, Other Recommender, Parent since they are not actually high school teachers?
Making it more complicated, in addition he has a recommendation from his boss where he leads tours at the home of a prominent 19th century politician… so a pretty important recommendation. Wondering if he could use 2 high school teachers and his college seminar instructor as “teachers” and the main college class professor and his boss as “other recommenders.”
If he has to drop one of the four teachers, the professors are from William & Mary… hate to drop them. On the other hand hate to just use one high school teacher recommendation.
The recommendation requirements and how many, if any, additional recs are allowed vary by college.
Having said that, just because a college says you can send additional recommendations does not mean that in all cases you should send an extra rec. If the add’l rec adds nothing to the application that was not covered by the others, it’s best not to send. In many cases, the perception will be: the thicker the file, the thicker the kid. AO’s will not spend more time on an app with extra recs, so the extra recs might result in the AO glossing over another aspect of the application.
If after that, your son decides to include a college professor’s rec, it really does not matter if he lists it as “teacher” or as “other.” Personally, I would use “other,” since in many schools the HS recs go through Naviance, and it just seems cleaner to use “other” for recs outside of Naviance.
@skieurope thank you for the advice. Do you or anyone else know if the recommenders are immediately sent an email when added to the general list of recommenders or only after they are added to specific college applications. Or could a recommender change their designation from “teacher” to “other” on their end?
My understanding is that they get they email immediately. I do not believe that they can change the designation. In both instances, a teacher with experience in these matters can confirm.
We dealt with something similar - two letters of rec from college professors from two different colleges, one of which was Duke. They do get the email immediately, I am fairly certain they cannot themselves change the designation. I have heard that what matters the most, in situations like this, is the grades they got in the college classes. A letter from a prof at a prestigious university (or something similar) would be great, but probably only one is required. Presumably your son mentioned his experience as a docent/guide in his application. The letter of rec would be icing, but the experience is what they are looking for, not necessarily the letter. His application will speak for itself, and the letters will support him. But too many letters could be seen as overkill, FYI.
We also had a similar issue. We shared all the letters with the school counselor. He told us which ones to use for “other” and said he would use information from remaining letters and fold into his. I also agree with the above post, I think it was the grade my daughter rec’d in the college class that admissions was most interested in, not a letter from her prof.