<p>It appears that the conservatories typically request two recommendations from music teachers. However, S has a couple of additional ones that are already written, as a result of other work he has done (he hasn't even asked his music teachers for theirs yet).</p>
<p>Do people adhere to the two recommendations, or send others anyway? I am a direction follower, but the extras son has really show how multi-dimensional he is, so I'm torn.</p>
<p>Oh, and should they be sent separately by the teacher, directly to the college, or as part of a bigger envelope of "stuff"?</p>
<p>I honestly can't remember if son's apps requested 2 or 3. Based on his activities, he had one recomendation from his hs orchestral director, another from the hs music department chair, one from the executive director of the youth symphony, and one from his chamber coach, who was also a performing professional.</p>
<p>The way it worked out, each outlined different takes on his strengths and accomplishments based on the distinct relationships he had with each person, and thus served well to focus on specific areas of his musicianship. </p>
<p>He sent all four.</p>
<p>If the info had been repititious, I doubt he would have used all.</p>
<p>IMHO if it's an mostly audition based admission like in a conservatory, recommendations have less of an impact and it's debatable if more help; it's all about the audition.</p>
<p>If you scour websites carefully, sometimes they will tell you flat out whether more is okay - or you can send them an email. I have a recollection of one school (Emory, I think) that said they wanted ONE, and would accept two if the second one had different info than the first. More than that and they took points off. (They were kidding, but making a point.) Several schools, though, emphasized that they resented students who sent additional info that only repeated the same stuff - a waste of their time to have to read it all. (Which I thought was interesting, since sometimes my kids had no idea what their recs said!)</p>
<p>My kids generally played by the rules. If a school gave them wiggle room, eg. asking for 2-3 recs, they always sent the greater number. Some of your extra ones, though, might come in handy if your S is planning on applying for any school scholarships or honors programs that require additional recs. My D had that happen a number of times - she had to keep track of which recs were sent where, so she didn't duplicate them.</p>