<p>Most colleges require only 2 teacher's evaluations, but "strongly" discourage any additional recommendation letters from outside the school. Is there any harm in sending additional letters to strength my son's acceptance opportunity?</p>
<p>His is currently at 88% in school ranking
SAT: 780-780-750
SAT Subject Test: 730-780-740
ACT: 35</p>
<p>His spends a lot of his time in music and other community services and in music, while his grade is not being perfect (All A's)</p>
<p>I am hooping to include more recommendation letters form his piano teachers and community leaders to strengthen his profile.</p>
<p>Please provide some feedback ASAP since we are putting in an application that has a 11/01/2009 deadline, this weekend!!</p>
<p>The reason schools strongly discourage your adding more letters is that rarely, do they add any more dimension than what your two teacher recs will say. </p>
<p>If (and a BIG IF) you have ONE supplemental rec letter from someone who won’t parrot what the other two rec letters will say , then it’s OK to send it.</p>
<p>Rembemer, the bland generic rec letters say “he/she’s a great character, is smart , yada yada”.</p>
<p>What is most valuable are rec letters with specific and compelling anecdotes which show the applicant in a great light.</p>
<p>If you send more than one supplemental, you are most assuredly HURTING the applicant. 1) you can’t follow direction, 2) you don’t respect their time. An adage: “the thicker the file, the thicker the kid”</p>
<p>DO NOT SEND more than the SINGLE BEST (and markedly different) rec letter from a non-teacher. Your child isn’t a special case.</p>
<p>Tell that to the (privately counseled) kids I know who got into HYPSM amongst other places with two supplemental recs in addition to the three from the HS.</p>
<p>Yes, it is important that the supplementals be from significant activities, and it is wise not to submit recs from people who don’t really know the kid or to seriously overdo it. Two is probably the limit. But this thing that extra recs are the kiss of death is simply false.</p>
<p>If your kid has two significant areas of involvement, music and community service, it would be perfectly reasonable to submit ONE music rec and ONE community rec–but only if your kid is really known to the person and has done some significant work. I would definitely not seek multiple music recs or multiple service recs.</p>
<p>Most of the colleges my D applied to only required one teacher recommendation letter and a guidance counselor recommendation. One website says “Additional letters, though not encouraged, may be submitted if the student feels they can add new perspective to his/her application.” My D did submit a letter from a summer program she attended in the area of her intended major.</p>
<p>Tell that to the 30+ kids from my HS who got into HYPSM in the last few years who sent NO recommendations other than the ones required and none of whom were privately counseled.</p>