Same here! S22 is a NMSF officially. His school had 25 this year. I don’t know if he’ll end up at a school with a large NMF scholarship, but you better believe we have a couple on his application list just in case!
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We have U of Alabama Huntsville specifically for this 
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Congrats! My S22 was (finally) notified this morning after I emailed our principal yesterday to ask him to check his mail. Our school has 3 this year, about average for us. S22 will definitely reuse his common app essay which is a relief. He is adding a few extra schools to consider due to NMSF scholarships - my S19 did this too, but he ended up picking a school where it didn’t help. You never know!
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Our high school has 10 NMSF this year. Kudos to them because the school did not hold the PSAT and they had to go the alternate route of submitting SAT scores.
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Going back to an older discussion about LOR. Today I came across the following on Rutgers website
Letters of recommendation are not used for admissions consideration. The Rutgers application provides multiple opportunities for applicants to describe their accomplishments, activities, community service, and personal experiences
https://admissions.rutgers.edu/applying/more-for-first-year-applicants#recommendations
A lot of schools don’t rank, and curriculum guides rarely mention how often classes are offered. S22’s school lists a bunch of APs, but most are not offered every year. Thankfully good high school college counselors maintain relationships with their college counterparts, and good colleges and universities do the same.
Typically an application includes 3 LORs - 2 picked by the student, and 1 from the high school’s college counselor. Every school is different so it’s important not to submit information that isn’t requested (e.g. extra LORs). What I was surprised to learn from S22’s school is that the transcripts don’t include Q1 grades unless the student requests it. We’ll absolutely be requesting it for all of his applications.
I don’t think you can submit extra LORs or at least not through the common app. It won’t allow you to assign more LORs than the school allows.
A while back on this thread, we debated if a GC LOR is required by all schools which it isn’t. Many mark it as optional. I was surprised to see that there are schools (a state flagship in this case) that won’t even read a single LOR.
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I think the use of LoR drops off rapidly from the most selective schools. I’m not surprised that Rutgers doesn’t want 60,000 (or a multiple thereof) letters for their AOs to read.
My D is applying to a top-heavy CS list of schools and requires a combined ten teacher LoRs and five Counselor recommendations from twelve schools, so an average of 1.25. I wouldn’t say three is typical - only three of the twelve require that many.
I think it’s more the size rather than the degree of selectivity. My D22 (3.8 weighted GPA, 28 ACT) is looking at a lot of LACs that will be safeties for her/have a high acceptance rate and many of them do want LORs even though these are not selective schools. The big schools, not so much.
BTW, one school (UNC-Asheville) did tell us straight up that they were mainly interested in the essay this year because EC’s were so screwed up by the pandemic. They are weighting the essay much more this go 'round. I can’t remember if they want a LOR or not. (ETA: just checked and 2 teacher and 2 other LORs are optional at UNC-A.) UNC-A is lower down on D22’s list at this point (not because of the essay bit, she just wasn’t digging the vibe as much as some other schools).
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Yes, I was going to add those as contributing factors….just got tired of typing😊
Not knowing the LAC side of the world - is 3 required LoR typical?
I don’t know. I’ll tell you what the Common App says for the ones my D22 is thinking about:
Agnes Scott:
Teacher Evaluation(s): 1 Required, 9 Optional
Other Evaluation(s): Not Applicable
Hollins:
Teacher Evaluation(s): 0 Required, 3 Optional
Other Evaluation(s): 0 Required, 3 Optional
Knox:
Teacher Evaluation(s): 1 Required, 1 Optional
Other Evaluation(s): 0 Required, 1 Optional
Warren Wilson:
Teacher Evaluation(s): 0 Required, 3 Optional
Other Evaluation(s): 0 Required, 2 Optional
That’s not counting the Guidance Counselor recommendation. Thought Agnes Scott’s 1 required, 9 optional, no other evals was a bit weird.
9 optional teacher evals? wow, that seems like a lot My D is applying to Agnes Scott as well but she isn’t close to submitting yet. Also, she has asked only one teacher for an eval so far. One of the colleges on her list requires two and that fact might get it kicked off her list …teenagers :-0
It is kinda weird that they allow 9 optional teacher evaluations, but 0 from other folks like
- Arts Teacher
- Clergy
- Coach
- College Access Counselor
- Employer
- Other
(that’s the list from Hollins’ “other evaluations”)
D22 has a mentor (fairly well known published author) outside of school who would love to write her a LOR and I’d love to have her write a LOR for her because D22 wants to major in Creative Writing. I think we will have to check out Agnes Scott’s app on their website and see if they will allow that kind of LOR through there.
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The UCs and CSUs do not accept LOR.
I came across this CC article about a browser extension for Chrome that works with the Common App. It’s call “Inline”. Have any of y’all (or your kids) used it? Looks like it could be helpful, but I just don’t know much about it.
One minor footnote, I believe, in at least Cal’s “augmented review” process, the applicant does have the opportunity to submit up to two LOR’s. Not sure about the other UC’s.
True, but it is optional and less than 15% of applicants are given the opportunity to submit a LOR. The letters are requested after the application is reviewed and only if admissions feels that a LOR might provide additional insight into unique or extenuating circumstances.
GC told my S22 that though UGA says to send 3 LORs, that was a new requirement last year and GC heard from UGA that they were so inundated with LORs and applications that they did not read all 3. GC suggested S22 send one. I told him to get the GC to read them and tell him which one was the best to send, lol.
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Checked the recommendation policy at NYU, my S22’s ED choice, and it seems like the right mix for him: one from a GC, one from a teacher and an optional third. He’ll get his third one from an NYU law professor who’s a friend of ours and had S22 do a small research project for her over the summer.
Also confirmed that, as I suspected, my late father having graduated from NYU confers no legacy preference. Immediate family only. My wife is convinced that my father having been one of what were probably few Black graduates in 1960 should be meaningful, but even if there’s a way to convey it, I doubt it’ll move the needle.
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