<p>does cornell particularly discourage or encourage applicants from submitting supplementary recommendations?</p>
<p>i.e. from mentors</p>
<p>Discourage.</p>
<p>ah</p>
<p>does it say on the site?</p>
<p>if you know they're going to be good, I say submit them...but not too many</p>
<p>The avg cornell applicant sends in 4-6 recs, so I guess anything beyond that would be discouraged. If it falls in that range, it's ok.</p>
<p>where did you get that statistic?</p>
<p>^ im not sure if that's true or not, but if you look at threads from last years applicants, many of those acceptanced had 3 recs; one from a counselor and two from teachers. i think 3 recs is just fine, anymore than 4 or so makes it look like you are trying to cover up some weakness of your application...</p>
<p>Not necessarily holden. To a point you are correct: too many apps become redundant. However, submitting a couple extras that bring a unique perspective on yourself can be good. Obviously if they just say the same stuff that is in your app that's no good, but I got one from my employer/TKD instructor that talked about dedication and leadership blah blah blah, and one from a summer course (at CTY) instructor who was very enthusiastic about writing me one and he talked about my performance in the <em>college-like</em> atmosphere and also leadership skills. So yeah, that was more reinforcement on the leadership part than redundancy. The recs showed (more than just seeing I am in charge of such and such club) my leadership skills, provided a 1-2 punch from the employer/instructor about dedication/responsibility, and how I was likely to perform well (better than in HS?) at college. As you can see, the recs served purposes; it wasn't like a bunch of random people saying "he is nice he is smart he will do well" but rather specific pertinent examples.</p>
<p>Those were my supplementals; obviously i still had the 3 required ones: teacher 1, teacher 2, and guidance counselor.</p>
<p>so yeah, if they serve a purpose send away, if it's your state senator who you met once whose office you work in writing a letter, that's not so good. :p</p>
<p>ya, that's a good point sparticus. i agree. using supplemental recs is fine as long as they are coming from people who (1) know you very well and (2) you know can write something fantastic about you.</p>
<p>My source came from the words of the assistant director of admissions at CALS when I spoke to him.</p>
<p>And everyone makes a fine point. Supplemental recs are only good if they bring out another perspective in you that you think the teachers/GC hasn't touched upon. As for me, I just sent in one supplemental rec from my mentor who wrote a rec about how quickly I adapted to a lab environment.</p>
<p>I spoke to the former director of admissions over the summer, and he said you should be careful as to how many you send...make sure anything more than the two teacher and 1 counselor recs (the required stuff) says something extra about you. He said that it will just annoy the adcom if you send in several extra recs that all say the same thing more or less about you. I just went with two teacher recs and 1 counselor rec...no sense in anything more than that.</p>
<p>If i was to send an extra letter of recommendation, do i just ask my recommender to write a letter without any forms or anything?</p>
<p>for those of you who are sending an extra letter, what have you guys done?</p>
<p>i'm interested too....cornell...</p>
<p>just a letter right, no need for evaluation form for the supp rec?</p>
<p>bump, please?</p>
<p>The extra letter should be just that: a letter. There are no special "supplemental forms." They should mail it to the admissions office.</p>