<p>I know there are lots of threads about this, but here's my particular situation.</p>
<p>I decided to get recommendations from three different teachers:
-- French (knows me very well and could write a thoughtful letter)
-- English (also knows me well and could write a thoughtful letter)
-- Biology (doesn't know me as well but Bio is relevant to my intended field of study; plus, some of my schools require a math/science recommendation)</p>
<p>I thought it'd be okay to send both French and English because they'd talk about different facets of my personality and what not. </p>
<p>However, I've seen the English teacher's recommendation, and the letter isn't very personal. The checkmarks on the CommonApp form are very good (Top 1% overall), but I know that colleges don't care much about that. </p>
<p>I know that if a student sends three recs, they should each be very revealing and personal and blah blah blah. This recommendation isn't. However, my concerns about not sending it are:
-- I'd feel REALLY guilty having asked her for it and not used it.
-- What if neither of the other teachers gives me a "Top 1%" and with that rating, colleges would have thought more highly of me?</p>
<p>Right now, I'm leaning toward sending it to a few of my schools (my "safer" ones) but not all. See, all seven schools that I asked for recs for are CommonApp, so she only had to fill out one form and write one letter -- so even if I had intended on sending it to only one school, she'd have had to have done just as much work for me. </p>
<p>My parents say that they don't really care what I do and that sending an extra rec won't hurt, but I'm not sure about that. I don't want to make adcoms trudge through extra stuff that doesn't really add anything to my application. </p>
<p>Although I will most likely also see my French and Bio letters, as both of those teachers generally show students their materials, I'm not going to just wait until I see those and make my decision then. That's too risky and unpredictable (I don't know when and even if I'll see them.) </p>
<p>tl;dr: Should I send a third teacher recommendation that doesn't add much to my application?</p>