<p>i can prob get about 5-8 from my college profs, ive heard the magic number is 2...is the more the better in this circumstance?</p>
<p>college admission committees are more interested in seeing an applicant’s focus and passion, rather than a number of disjointed activities.
OOPS! i just realize i’ve answered re. ECs not RECs! well, yes, don’t overdo..it’ll annoy them. maybe 1, no more than 2 over what they require.</p>
<p>No. The college admissions officers to whom I have spoken have said that they hate getting excessive letters because they are bound to read everything in a file and they don’t want to read the same old things over and over again. You should only submit extra letters if these people can truly say something different about you or have known you in a completely different context. Otherwise, 2 glowing recs are essentially the same as 5 glowing recs.</p>
<p>(As an extreme and funny aside, one adcom said that an applicant sent close to 50 recs to JHU. The adcoms were so annoyed and she was eventually rejected.)</p>
<p>Agree with the above posters…two tends to be the magic number; three if the college requires two (one more than what is recommended IF the rec has something new or different to say about you).</p>
<p>Ah, way to ask two questions.</p>
<p>such a thing as too many recs? –> yes
is the more the better in this circumstance? –> no</p>
<p>Get 2 strong recommendations from teachers who know you well and from core academic subjects (math, english, science, social science, foreign language). If you have another teacher who really loves you or a coach, employer, etc. who knows you really well or has something very special to say about you (that isn’t communicated anywhere else on your application) then ask them to send a letter, but not the full recommendation form.</p>
<p>Also, look at it this way: recommendations serve two simultaneous purposes. On one hand, they provide comments from teachers. On the other hand, they provide insight into your judgment. Did you pick people who knew you well and would write good personalized things about you? If you ask 8 professors to send recommendations then it means you couldn’t be judicious about who knows you well enough to write you the strongest letters.</p>
<p>
haha i caught that too.
3 or less is the way to go.</p>
<p>A Northwestern Adcom said the more the better in their eyes. But I agree that discretion should be used.</p>
<p>“The thicker the file, the thicker the student.”
…and I heard <em>this</em> from an AdCom person once. Be concise. If you can’t get your point across in the amount of material that they recommend you send them, then <em>that</em> says more about you than the extra wads of material that you send them say.</p>