Supplemental Materials

Hi friends,

I’m a SCEA applicant and I was wondering if you could help me sort out whether I should send some supplemental materials. Yale says that you “may send one additional letter” which I have already done so that my mentor, clarinet teacher, could write about me.

However, I also have a letter from my Congressman who I’ve worked with as well as a professor from a university I’ve taken classes with and a resume.

Does anyone have a good understanding about supplemental materials? I don’t want to annoy the committee but these materials actually have some substance.

Thanks,

https://admissions.yale.edu/supplementary#recs

As you’ve already sent Yale the one additional recommendation from your clarinet teacher, YOU’RE DONE! There’s an expression in college admissions that goes “The thicker the file, the thicker the kid.” You don’t want to be the “thick kid” and demonstrate your inability to follow directions! Remember: “Sometimes, less is more.”

Keep in mind that Yale is an academic institution and primarily wants to know how well you perform in the classroom. For example, are you the kind of student who always has their hand raised with thoughtful insights and questions? Are you a leader of classroom discussions? Or, are you the kind of student who knows the answer to the question, but the teacher needs to call upon you? How does your writing skills compare to other students in the classroom? How about your math skills? Are you respected by your fellow students and their teachers? Do you show promise as a scholar? Those are the questions Admissions needs answers to.

My guess is the congressman will NOT be able to address those specific questions, so please don’t have them send in a recommendation and clutter your file. With regards to the college professor, will s/he say anything different than what your two high school teachers have said? My guess is they won’t. So, unless that college professor is going to proclaim your writing or math skills to be on par with with a undergraduate or graduate college student, do NOT have them send in an additional recommendation as it will clutter your file. In addition, colleges do NOT want resumes from students – that’s why the Common Application stopped allowing students to upload documents, as Admissions was receiving unwanted resumes. Trust the Admissions Officers – your EC list will suffice as a resume, nothing more is needed.

The tough part is that I don’t know what my college professor will say. She actually got her PHD at Yale and thus has taught Yale students. If she said something like “His writing is on par with the Yale students I taught” do you think that would be worth it? The thing is I don’t know whether she will say that

You have already submitted a supplemental LoR. Please refer to the instructions below (emphasis mine). Colleges that provide instructions would prefer that applicants follow them.

https://admissions.yale.edu/supplementary#recs

It will carry no more weight than a well-written letter by anybody else. But more to the point, the application was due 4 days ago, so it’s a bit late to be soliciting LoRs. Move on.

“One additional letter” means just that. You are done. It won’t benefit your application to demonstrate that you are either incapable of following a simple instruction or that you think you are above the rules.

@SeeWithTheHeart: I posted this on another thread where you asked the same question. If you are incapable of following instructions, your application materials will be skimmed.