Okay, so I asked three teachers for recommendations. Michigan only wants one, and my other EA colleges wanted two. My counselor recommended that I ask three teachers because I was having trouble deciding between two science teachers. She said that once all of them came in, I could then decide which ones I wanted to send to each school.
So I did that. But when I went to talk to her (it was towards the end of the month, so I probably should have gone earlier), she said that she already sent them all in. It turns out that she sent all three recommendations to each school. I was obviously disappointed, but she said that it was fine and there was nothing to worry about. When she was submitting them, they didn’t cap her to a specific number.
She said that sending extra ones is fine, but reading the comments on here, it seems like schools really don’t want extra recommendations. I don’t think it’s too bad for my other schools, but since Michigan wants only one, sending two extra seems like it’s too much.
Should I contact the admissions office and ask them to remove two? I’m super worried. I don’t know if it’s too late to call them. If it helps, I only got my EA qualified email a few days ago.
How is your counselor adding these to your app? Assuming this is the Common App, then the student goes in to the recommender section and invites a recommendation from teacher that the student specifies. How did the counselor do that?
Also, I wouldn’t worry too much about sending more than Michigan wants.
@suzy100 Whoops, I should have clarified. My school uses Naviance. My teachers submit their recommendations into the system and my counselor sends them from there.
You’re fine. If a school wants to limit the number of recommendations, it can do this in the Common App, and the counselor will not even be able to upload it through Naviance. For Michigan, the Common App says the school requires one but allows three optional teacher recommendations. We went through this with my daughter and ended up submitting two teacher recommendations.
galax, who told you Michigan only “wants” one recommendation? That is completely false. Michigan requires one recommendation, but welcomes up to four. Sending in three recommendations is perfectly reasonable. The vast majority of applicants send in 2, but 1 or 3 recommendations are perfectly acceptable.
@Alexandre well, since it requires one I was thinking it only wants one. There’s also a statement that says “Do not submit any extra documents unless specifically requested, as this may only delay your decision.” Thanks though !
Teacher recommendations was not what they had in mind. They were referring to other documents, such as “certificates” of participation.
Schools that do not want more than 1 recommendation, like Purdue, limit applicants to just one. Michigan requires 1 but welcomes up to 4. Sending in 3 recommendations cannot hurt.
