I was going to ask a question in another thread about optional recommendations, but I realized S23 has some other questions so I started a new thread. Our son’s GC will be of no help in this matter, so he can’t ask her.
We are confused about which “optional” parts of the app are truly “we actually don’t want it for most people” vs “it’s not really optional if you want to do well”.
S23 is not applying to any big reaches, so this is somewhat different for people who apply to fancier schools with lots of app requirements.
I understand that students should answer the “optional” college-specific supplemental essays. So I’ve told S23 those aren’t truly optional, and he should think of them as required.
One-third of his colleges don’t require the main common app personal essay but call it “optional”. Should he submit it anyway? Will it help his app or will they be annoyed that they have to read an essay? I’m predicting it will be a solid essay (not done yet).
About two-thirds of his colleges don’t require any recommendations. A couple require 1, and a couple require 2. For example, Rose-Hulman requires 1 but will accept an additional rec. He’ll just send rec #1, because #2 rec isn’t that distinct from #1 rec. I get that. My question is: should he submit 1 rec into each school that requires 0 recs? All his schools will accept at least 1 teacher rec. Will it help his app or will they be annoyed they have to read any recs at all? Teacher #1 told him she’ll write a great rec.
He’s got several schools that don’t require any essays or recs at all. He could apply to those today. But he’s looking for merit aid. We are confused about whether submitting the optional main essay and/or 1 rec when 0 are required will actually help an application with respect to admission or merit aid. It’s no extra effort on the part of him or his teacher (via Naviance) since they have to submit these items to some of the schools anyway. Are we stuck with calling each individual school to ask and hope that they’ll be honest ?
I write and review a lot of scientific papers and funding proposals. A big rule I always keep in mind is: don’t annoy the reviewer or make their job difficult. I can guess what will annoy the people that read my professional writing. But I don’t know what annoys admissions officers or makes their job more difficult!
Yeah, that’s one of the problems. He’s targeting a long list of schools, both public and private, small and large, due to a few factors. The big ones are that spouse and I work at different institutions, one of us might be switching employers next year (so son has to apply to those institutions as well), S23 qualifies to apply for Tuition Exchange scholarships, and he’s looking for merit aid. Our budget is tiny, and each school has been carefully evaluated to be on the list.
His list is 14 schools total, 9 of which are Tuition Exchange schools (not parent employer), 5 of which are current/potential parental employer remission schools, and 6 of which are publics. It’s complicated. We had the list smaller and then had to add some more due to the employment factors.
He is applying for honors programs at some of the schools but not others, and is seeking merit at all of them except for 2. I won’t be surprised if he is accepted to every school or nearly every school on his list (it’s only targets and safeties). It’s the merit aid that is the real wild card here, and I’d hate for him to submit materials that will annoy the evaluators, or to not submit materials that could help him.
He has good grades and test scores. That’s probably what will get him admitted. His EC’s are fine. I think his essays and recs will be good. Will those help with merit aid, or are they superfluous?
We don’t want to overthink this either. I’m tempted to just tell him to submit the main common app essay to all the schools, to have teacher #1 submit a rec to each school, and to only have teacher #2 submit to the 2 schools that require it. But I don’t know if that’s too much.
I mean, if you list the schools, people might have information on at least some of them? (people could also look in your posts to try to see which ones, but it would be easier if you list them )
Sure, and thanks! I am leaving out a few for privacy reasons, but those aren’t ones that I’m so worried about getting direct answers for.
Case Western (the biggest reach): 2 required recs
Purdue (might be a reach but is in state): 0 req, 1 optional
Milwaukee School of Engineering: 0 req, 2 optional
Rochester Institute of Technology: 0 req, 4 optional
Rose-Hulman: 1 req, 1 optional
Syracuse: 2 req
U of Dayton: 0 req, 1 optional
U of Delaware: 0 req, 4 optional
U of Louisville (the only honors-specific app): 0 req, 10 optional
U of Pittsburgh: ??? none accepted?
Worcester Polytech Institute: 1 req, 1 optional
MSOE, Louisville, and Pitt do not require any essays at all, nor do 2 of the schools I omitted for privacy reasons.
Pitt requires the essay for merit scholarships. “Submission of a personal statement or the Common Application essay is required for scholarship consideration or those applying test-optional.” Case and Purdue also require the essay.
Case requires LORs. I have on our spreadsheet that Pitt and Purdue don’t recommend sending LORs (but I could be wrong)
Purdue has two required essays (plus another two if applying for honors). Here are the two required essays, straight from common app:
“How will opportunities at Purdue support your interests, both in and out of the classroom? (Respond in 100 words or fewer.)*”
“Briefly discuss your reasons for pursuing the major you have selected. (Respond in 100 words or fewer.)*”
RIT seems to have only 1 optional essay in the common app (but there could be more as I didn’t check every iteration of app type. I encourage students do these types of optional essays). Not sure where you are seeing 4 optional essays, unless you are looking at a very old (2012) pdf on RIT’s website.
From common app:
“If RIT could create any course tailored to your interests, what would that course be about and what would you give as its title?”
For Delaware, I am only seeing this in common app, but there may be some for honors or certain programs. This is the type of essay that is truly optional (and really the HS GC should also cover anything a student wishes to write here):
“Self-Appraisal of your academic performance: The Admissions Committee expects that you will take advantage of this question to explain any grade on your transcript that is unusually low or varies significantly from your usual performance in the section below.”
You can create a practice common app account to look the rest up, but your S should start a doc with all the supplementals.
The numbers I put after the colleges were referring to letters of recommendation, not essays. Sorry to confuse you.
He’ll do all the school-specific essays for sure (like your examples of Purdue, which is required, and RIT which is optional).
He’s got all the requirements listed in the common app account, which is helpful. He’s just wondering about submitting the main common app personal essay when it’s not required, and submitting 1 teacher rec when none are required.
He isn’t applying for honors to Pitt or Purdue, which have special apps. The colleges where he is applying honors either have auto-admit or an invited honors app later. U of Louisville is the only honors app he has to fill out right now.
Oh that’s good to know about the Pitt essay, thanks! Do you have the same understanding as I do – that they don’t accept any teacher recs at all? That’s fine, but is a bit unique so I want to make sure I have that right. And like Purdue specifically discourages sending them? It’s kind of hard to keep it straight!
We attended a Pitt admissions zoom meeting, and what I wrote down was that they would rather not have recs submitted, unless there is something that needs to be explained.
I believe Purdue is the same way but I don’t remember where I got that info…
I agree it’s hard to keep it straight and we have a lot of the same questions that you do (one reason I’m hoping you get lots of answers in this thread )
I would submit the main common app personal essay everywhere, there’s no downside, assuming it’s a good essay. I would also submit a teacher LoR where not required, again assuming it will be good and that it will help him.
Fascinating. This is yet another thing to add to the list of unwritten rules about applying to colleges. I am glad that colleges are trying to reduce the burdens for applicants, but sometime it feels like just another nuance that disadvantages families that are not super well-informed. I wish colleges would either do away with optional app requirements or at least make it clear right on the application whether they are truly optional, preferred, or not preferred.
Our high school guidance counselors (who were excellent) impressed upon both of my kids that “optional” essays/LORs were NOT optional if you wanted to maximize your chance of acceptance.
Agree with others that your S should never send more than they want.
@momofboiler1@happy1 do you recommend submitting recs in every category up to the “optional” limit? Or do you just mean the teacher recs?
As an example, for Purdue, the common app says:
Teacher Evaluation(s): 0 Required , 1 Optional
Other Evaluation(s): 0 Required, 1 Optional
In my S23’s case, he could use a STEM teacher, plus his orchestra teacher for “other” (a strong rec). Would you recommend both, or just the teacher rec, or neither?
I would definitely send the teacher recommendation. If he has a LOR from the orchestra teacher set up already that would: 1) be very positive and 2) (you expect) it will have a different perspective as compared to the teacher LOR then it won’t hurt to send it as well.
I personally would not bother. Why overwork someone? Unless there is something very compelling that can swing a decision, yet another recommendation or essay adds little to no value IMO. This is based on the list of schools OP provided. Now for highly rejective schools, it might be a different story but even then, I’d be less than tempted.
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