<p>I know most schools require two recommendations, some one teacher and one guidance counselor, and some two teachers. However, I have three teachers willing to right me recommendations: my junior year English teacher, my sophomore year history teacher who is also my current AP Psych teacher and debate coach, and my junior year philosophy teacher. The philosophy teacher is known for writing amazing recommendations, and I want to send as many schools as possible the one he wrote for me. </p>
<p>I know a few schools, such as NYU and University of Chicago, specifically say they do not want anymore than two teacher evaluations, and wont read any extras. However a lot of the other schools on my list are rather vague in terms of how many you can send and how many they will read. Do you think I should send my philosophy teacher's recommendation to any school that does not specifically say no more than two, or rather only send it to one's that I know for will read as many as they receive, such as UVA?</p>
<p>University of Chicago is strict on only 2? I was planning on sending three and I know people who posted round here saying they sent in additional recs.</p>
<p>So to distill, you can send up to three letters of recommendation (in addition to anything your college counselor sends):
1 (required). English or social studies teacher
2 (required). Math or science.
3 (optional). Music or foreign language teacher or others. Probably not someone who would be classified under numbers 1 or 2.</p>
<p>Based on what I heard at the info session, UChicago is somewhat strict on only two teacher recs, and generally believe that if you’re sending them additional info, someone who is not your school teacher will be more likely to offer information that they haven’t already seen. When I visited, they even mentioned applicants having sent in recs written by their friends. Basically, if you’re sending extra recs, they want a different perspective.</p>
<p>I have more than two teachers who are willing and able to write me recommendations, but I’m asking the two who I know best and who know me best. I’m sure other teachers could write me good ones, but the teachers I’ve selected will give me the most true ones. I did also note their history of sending good recs and whether I knew them to be eloquent or not, but the aforementioned was the primary focus.
In your case, though I do not know your teachers or your situation at all, I would want the rec from the soph. yr hist/current AP Psych teacher because s/he has seen me over the years and can comment on my ECs in an in depth manner. I think I would also want the rec from the philosophy teacher, but if you’re considerably closer to the English teacher, that might be a better choice.</p>
<p>I was surprised to see on the common app site that many schools allow more than 2 recs. I had thought most had limited to 2. Does anyone have more info on whether sending 3 is good/bad/indifferent?</p>
<p>Sending in more than 2 is unlikely to hurt you that much, unless the school is specific about not wanting more. However, if a third reccomendation doesn’t add significant new information, it’s not going to help; don’t go find another random teacher who likes you.</p>
<p>We have heard the same thing at almost every info session: you can send as many recs as you want, but we’re only going to read the first two or three anyway, so there’s not much point in sending more than that.</p>
<p>Don’t believe those who tell you that extra recs are a detriment. The kids I know who were most successful in their applications sent 3 or 4. The key is that it is preferable for the extra recs to come from people who know you well in some aspect of your life other than academics: a music teacher, a coach, an employer. I wouldn’t send 4 teachers, but I would send 2 or 3 teachers and a coach/conductor/employer, or 2 teachers and 2 from the second list. I also would not send more than 4, and definitely not from people who really don’t know you even if they are well-known for some reason. So, for example, it’s fine to send a letter from an elected official if you interned for that person for a summer and they actually are familiar with your work, but not if they are simply a friend of your family or all you did was run the copy machine in their office and exchange the occasional greeting.</p>
<p>OP, for the U of C, you are going to need a rec from a math/science teacher. I would suggest that you pick two teachers from your existing list (English, history, and philosophy) plus one math/science, giving you a total of three. You can then choose to send any two or all three to most schools. If, for example, you think your math/science rec is going to be the weakest of the three, you can send the other two to schools other than the U of C.</p>
<p>Edit: I haven’t counted the GC rec above. At our HS it isn’t worth much, since the GC hardly knows the kids.</p>
<p>Consolation, three or four sounds reasonable. I think the point the info session directors were making is that the more recs you send, the less likely it is that all of them will be read, so a diminishing-returns effect kicks in pretty quickly–and if some of them are more relevant or more enthusiastic than others, there’s a risk that the best ones will end up in the unread pile.</p>
<p>Your advice about going outside the school for an extra rec makes sense, and we’re following it–we’ll be requesting one from the director of the summer arts camp where our son has been a counselor for the past three years. We know she thinks highly of him, and she can speak to aspects of his character (leadership skills, for instance) that classroom teachers may not see as much of.</p>
<p>Does anyone think I should get a recommendation from my principal? He is a very enthusiastic person and has gotten to know me well because of my heavy involvement in everything from music to sports to math team to representing students and the school; essentially, he knows i’m a leader and knows all my extracurriculars. Idk how much my teachers know; they do hear my name on the announcements a lot, and I’m providing them a resume, but my principal probably knows them better because he comes to math meets, tennis matches, orchestra concerts where I solo/are concertmaster, etc.</p>