<p>How important are they?
What should they shay?</p>
<p>I don't think they are super important. If anything they should help, not detract. It helps them get to know you personally and if you have someone who can write sincerely about you in a positive light I think it will help you, though by no means be the deciding factor.</p>
<p>How many of the ED'ers sent a peer evaluation????</p>
<p>I did....</p>
<p>My advice is send one!</p>
<p>I applied ED, and did not send one. I only decided to apply ED a week before the deadline, and did not feel comfortable asking someone to write me a peer evalution.</p>
<p>I guess I'll learn on Friday whether or not that was a fatal error. As of now, I do have someone writing me a peer evalution, which I will send in if i get deferred.</p>
<p>I sent one.</p>
<p>When I met with Mark Robertson (admissions), he said that "it is that last thing we read in your application," so I thought of it in terms of the old saying, "last heard, first remembered" and figuring that it would be sort of a "conclusion" to my app.</p>
<p>I sent one when I applied two years ago. Obviously there's no way to know if it made any difference, but it couldn't have hurt. I picked someone who knows me really well and is a great writer. I think a generic letter listing how awesome you are won't really help much, but an honest opinion of you from someone outside of the process can make a difference. I didn't want to read the letter before it was sent, so my friend had my college counselor at school take a look at it first, which worked out well I think.</p>
<p>I didn't even realize Williams accepted peer recs 2 years ago when I applied. I think the Peer app is good in that it gives someone else a chance to add their voice and clarify aspects about your applications. Admissions uses this recommendation to get a feeling for who you are, and to a certain extent uses it to interpret your application. </p>
<p>All of that said, I can't think of any circumstance where a peer rec will actually make the difference between acceptance and rejection--admissions understands that peer recs are often from best friends or family members (and i highly doubt they ever get bad ones). If you plan on asking someone to write you a peer rec, I would ask them to write about some specific quality or trait you have, maybe one that you want to highlight in your application (say you're a natural leader and have a few leadership positions...if your peer rec speaks about your leadership ability and how it extends past your positions, it will probably cause Admissions to take the few positions you hold more seriously).</p>
<p>i did not send a peer eval and i was accepted... so it clearly is was not a deciding factor for me</p>