<p>My friend wrote my peer recommendation for Dartmouth, and I was thinking of submitting to other applications as an additional reference. There seems to be quite a negative stigma around these forums of submitting the peer letter outside of Dartmouth, and I was curious what is so bad about the idea . I can see positives or it being no impact but negative surprises me.</p>
<p>However, take Cornell, for example. On the Common App, it says:</p>
<p>"Other Recommender</p>
<p>Recommender types accepted: Arts Teacher, Clergy, Coach, College Access Counselor, Employer, Family Member, Peer, Other</p>
<p>Required: 0 Allowed: 3"</p>
<p>If they allow 3 and one says Peer, why is this such a bad idea? I noticed it because I'll be submitting one additional reference letter from my research mentor from the Intel STS competition.</p>
<p>I'd think worst case is that a place like Cornell will just ignore the peer letter. Presuming the peer letter isn't utterly horrible, I'd imagine it can add marginal value (even if so marginal that it's near 0.1% value) or worst case simply zero value. My thought is that it's not the same as another teacher letter. Whatever insight Dartmouth thinks it can add in terms of offering an insight into my personality in a way essays and teacher letters cannot, I don't see why that would not be possible elsewhere. Again, worst case, it just does nothing, no? However, this forum almost implies it would be the worst decision I can make. </p>
<p>The negatives I heard is making someone surly over seeing extra paper with the application. I just have a hard time imaging someone is so surly over another page there--just ignore it then.</p>