<p>Would it be a bad idea to submit a peer recommendation with my application? I think that the peer rec is a great idea for college apps, as it reveals a new side of the applicant. I’m already having my friend write one for Dartmouth. But Brown is really my dream school, and I truly believe that a peer rec would make my application better. Would it be a bad idea to send this to Brown (and possibly other schools that I’m applying to?)? I don’t want them to be offended that I’m sending something that is clearly part of a Dartmouth app and nor do I want to inundate them with extra stuff (although this is the only thing I’d send that isn’t req’d). And if I do end up doing this, I was thinking of having her write a little bit about why she thinks I should go to Brown (so that it’s not just some generic letter).</p>
<p>Any advice? Is this just a really bad idea?</p>
<p>I think a peer rec has its positive sides. But Brown doesn't ask for it. I would not send anything they don't ask for or mention in their information.</p>
<p>I'm not sure it'd be particularly helpful, but if you view it as an essential part of your application to tell your full story you should send it.</p>
<p>I think there is a lot of reason why a peer rec sounds a lot better on paper than it would be in practice. There are many reasons to not use peer recs and I'm not a fan for a lot of reasons. It creates burden on other students who are also going through the admissions process, it requires a maturity level of someone you're not evaluating to be at least as high as a student entering the program I'd think, it could be something which is easily faked and is far less likely to be honest, etc etc.</p>
<p>The idea of having some kind of peer assessment and perspective is pretty appealing and interesting, but I'm not sure that it could work really well and meaningfully for high school seniors, certainly not across the board for many schools.</p>
<p>In fact, while I think it'd be interesting to write letters for my friends now going into graduate school, I'm not even sure I'd have the expectation as an evaluator that college seniors could really do a good job and make the process meaningful, but at least then there is some additional credentialization that allows you to assess who this letter is coming from and also significantly more maturity.</p>
<p>I totally understand what you're saying, Jason. It makes a lot of sense. I guess I was just assuming that the applicants would have that maturity, which is certainly not always the case. I'm very thankful for the friend that has written my rec, and I know that not everyone (in fact, the vast majority) are not like her. And you're also right that they could be easily faked (which is very frustrating to think about).</p>
<p>Yeah I think that it's more that you can't trust applicants peers as much as you can put faith in your applicants. You get to know an applicant from their file; you don't know anything about who is writing about them.</p>
<p>It makes it hard-- peers really can't default to some kind of authority in high school. Who knows who the heck they are and what they're writing and from what perspective? It's hard to extend the same kind of trust that you have for a teacher or professional or even an adult of some kind to another senior in high school who may just not be on the level of the applicant even.</p>