I’ve been wanting to send an extra letter of recommendation from one of my extracurricular supervisors to USC, but unfortunately the Common App wouldn’t allow me to. I really need this extra letter of recommendation since I had to transfer schools during my sophomore year and my teacher recs probably aren’t as personal as I’d like them to be.
I contacted the USC office of admissions explaining my situation and asking if it was OK to send in other letters of rec, but I haven’t received a response after waiting 3 days. All of the other colleges that I applied to responded to me within a day or two. Is this normal? If not, could I just send in the additional letter to the Office of Admissions?
Unfortunately it is normal, sorry they haven’t replied, it may be a busy time, but that is always the excuse there. The real issue is the school has just gotten too big over the last few years and trying to reach admissions/financial aid has become a nightmare of no response or incredible hold times on the phone (40 minutes+). It is a huge pet peeve of mine about USC, they are becoming less private like all the time. I get much better response at UCLA and even tiny staffed Cal Poly. Also less pompous attitude and nice people at the other schools. Sad but true. The “you should know you are lucky to be here” attitude shines through way too often imo and is gonna bite them back at some point.
Back to you - yes, send the letter if you think it is needed. Some will say they want to see if you can follow direction and only asked for two, but I believe in your case, it sounds like this information would add great value. They will eventually reply and at that time you can let them know you you felt it important to send and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause - or something similar and polite.
Thanks for your help! Do you think admissions would view my application in a more negative light if I did choose to send them? Another two days have passed and I still haven’t received a response. I’m thinking of just sending them now, but I don’t want to damage my admissions chances.
The other recommendations were sent online through the common app portal correct? Are you sending these in yourself? So that you don’t have regrets either way - can you all admissions tomorrow (or a parent if you are in school) or right after school, etc., and see what they say? Did you send the initial email to YOUR admissions advisor? Every school is assigned one. Most of their entire job is replying to students! Explain the situation, kindly ask if it would be ok to send in an additional rec given you were a high school transfer and teachers may not know you as well.
But…the recommenders (teachers) many many students use don’t know them till junior year. I think that applies to most at a high school of good size. And some GCs hardly know they kids they write for and do it by a survey, so I am not sure you are at as big a disadvantage as you think.