<p>The peer recommendation requirement has got to be the stupidest thing I encountered in the college application process, and if it weren't for this absurd requirement, I would have applied.</p>
<p>How useful do they ACTUALLY think that these peer recs are???
Almost all teacher and counselor recs are useless enough as it is, why more recs????</p>
<p>Just wanted to rant...
Thought that the whole thing was non-sensical</p>
<p>First of all, I know a few kids from this year alone who got in without doing the peer rec. They mistakenly thought it was optional and didn’t do it yet still got accepted.</p>
<p>Second, Dartmouth requires very little in terms of a supplement… and the peer rec requires very little from the applicants themselves. So using the peer rec as a reason for not applying just reflects laziness on the student’s part.</p>
<p>Third, if you don’t like it… don’t apply. Don’t worry, they aren’t hurting for applicants. Apparently there are many kids more than willing to do the peer rec. In fact, there are so many that every year they have to turn away more and more amazing applicants.</p>
<p>@wavylays94</p>
<p>Actually, the peer rec says alot about the kind of student and person an applicant is because of the concept of association. In most cases, it is your peers that know who you are the best. They interact with you in and out of the classroom, in and out of school and in and out of the home. The types of peers you associate with says alot about your level of ambition and how you see/respect others around you.</p>
<p>If you felt that your peers would have nothing of value to say about you or that their words are useless to helping the adcoms determine your value as a potential student, then what does that say about the people you “hang” with, or even more important, what does that say about you that you didn’t even want to bother or that you were annoyed by having to turn to a peer for a few good words???</p>
<p>^^ Like. I had the good fortune (long after the fact) to read the peer rec that D’s good friend wrote for her at the last minute (after another Dartmouth applicant, for whom she had written a rec, failed to carry through on his commitment – but we won’t go there). I learned a lot (about both of them) from it – and I expect Dartmouth did too. I’m not sure there was anyone who knew me that well when I was a senior in high school.</p>
<p>You know, one of the things that always struck me about D students I’ve known over the years–say mid 70s to the present–was how unpretentious they were in comparison to the “I’m so special” kids at HYP, despite similar or better stats. I think it likely that it has something to do with the peer rec. Just a thought.</p>