When I attended the information session at ND, the admissions officer discouraged sending more than one letter of recommendation. I already have one from a very close teacher of mine, but I am strongly considering adding another from a mentor at church. Would it be a good idea to include this letter?
Do you know if the admissions officer meant one total or one additional letter? I believe last year they took two teacher recommendations plus one optional letter that you could submit from someone else. My D used the optional to submit a letter from her youth minister at church. I don’t know if this has changed for this year, or if maybe you misunderstood the officer? The best way to check is to either check the Common App rec section, or call the ND admissions office.
I would ask the admissions rep that is assigned to your area. I know they do not want more than one teacher recommendation. From the website: “Please send only one letter of evaluation from a teacher you’ve had in a core academic discipline during high school. Ask the classroom teacher who is most familiar with your work ethic, classroom performance, and character. Your high school guidance counselor also has the option of sending a letter of evaluation along with the “Counselor’s Report.”"
Thank you!
It does say on the CommonApp one required and one optional, so I think I will get my youth minister as well.
Get two. Youth minister and teacher. For sure.
They don’t want a letter that is the same as the others. If you did something different and it is unique to your application, they are willing to read it. For example: professor from research lab at a university where you co-authored an international research paper that is being published.
I think the youth minister would be fine if the letter discusses positive attributes that would not be found in a typical academic LOR. Don’t send more than one extra though.