Supplementary Rec Letter?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I have recently been working with a County Commissioner (elected official) on creating a website for homeless medical assistance. She seems to be incredibly impressed with me and even offered to write a recommendation letter. I have been doing some research and found that most of the Ivy League and top colleges seem to strongly discourage supplementary recommendations. This person is not a friend of the family or a politician I happened to know, but rather someone that I have worked with who knows me well. She could vouch for my enthusiasm, innovative ideas, work ethic, professionalism, and quite a few other personal qualities that are not necessarily expressed in my academic teachers' letters.</p>

<p>Would you recommend I include this supplementary letter or do you think it would make the adcoms roll their eyes (i.e. "another politician's letter, forget it")?</p>

<p>Thanks for your help!</p>

2

<p>I think most people discourage supplementary recommendations that don’t add anything to your application. If most people want a supplementary recommendation, chances are they’re either from extracurriculars described in the Common App or additional teacher recommendations (99% of which are from teachers who are vastly too busy to write very detailed or heartwarming recommendations). I personally think the concept of having worked with someone at a county level would be much more influential than getting a generic recommendation from a state congressman’s office (since most are from staff who don’t really know the applicant). If you and the official are on a first-name basis (likely, since the person OFFERED to write a rec) and you haven’t written your main essay or your EC essay on your work there, then I’d say go for it.</p>