I’m going to be sending an early application to Harvard in the upcoming days but today I’m having doubts about my letters of recommendation. I have two teachers and my counselor (compulsory) but also have two external recommendations on Common App and two others that I’ll send in as supplements.
I know this may seem like a lot but they all mention different things and are all by people who know me very well. I’ve read that this may be too much but am really struggling to think of which ones I could remove because they’re all good and say great things. When I’d called Harvard to ask about this, they said there was no maximum as long as each is conveying something new, which is the case. Must I really remove some? I feel like my application would be lacking without having the four of them in. My counselor doesn’t know me very well because I go to a big school with only one counselor so his letter will probably be quite short and not have very much weight.
Just not too sure what to do at this point. Is it a really problem if I send my 4 external ones? (They aren’t terribly long either)
Thanks a lot! I always find this forum super helpful.
Harvard and Yale evaluate quite the same. Yet Yale goes the extra step of saying that it’s highly recommended to NOT exceed 2 LoRs.
In my humble opinion, I’d submit the 2 techer recs, the counselor note, and ONE additional note. Your idea of 6 LORs plus the counselor note sounds like a VERY bad idea.
Rule of thumb: “the thicker the file, the thicker the kid” – the story of the kid who submitted 27 LORs still gets tossed about. Don’t appear like that kid.
Just because you can do something does not mean that you should do it.
Agreed.
The challenge is that, while you will have spent hour upon hour writing and finetuning your application, the AO will spend 12-15 minutes reading it. Don’t think that you will get extra time just because you submit more recs; they will either spend the same amount of time on your recs (and therefore read each less in depth) or spend less time on the rest of your application.
My son’s guidance counselor is genuinely excellent. He tells students to solicit very brief statements from teachers, coaches, etc., the people who aren’t one of the two primary recommenders, but who have insight that could be valuable. Those statements are sent to the GC who draws upon them in his recommendation, sprinkling in quotes where appropriate. In rare cases, one of those supplemental recommendations is so strong that he advises a student to send in 1 additional letter of recommendation.
@skieurope@T26E4 My counselor really won’t have much to say so I feel like it’ll be short without much in it and can’t really count as much of a recommendation. The only supplements I’m planning on sending are a newspaper article and those additional recs. Wouldn’t that be the same then as an applicant who sends artwork or a research paper? I just feel like they bring so much to my application and they’re from really great volunteer experiences I’ve had.
Regardless of what you believe, the GC rec “counts;”
Well, for starters, I would never suggest sending in a research paper, because nobody will read it. An abstract should be sent in lieu of a research paper. In the second place, if artwork/music/abstracts are evaluated, it will usually be evaluated by a faculty member with expertise. So, no, extra recs are not the same thing.
Your application should be a compelling narrative - direct, interesting and telling a complete story. A half-dozen letters are going to be repetitive and/or diffuse the narrative.
I highly recommend not sending in the newspaper article – it doesn’t match the level of arts supplements – unless the WSJ or WAPO or NYT published it. Like others have said, “watering down” is something you don’t want to do with too much material submitted.
Many applicant’s underestimate the level of competition at colleges like HYPSM. For example, I bet this kid submitted his NY Times published crossword to HYPS when he applied. That’s the level of competition that exists at selective college’s, so if your newspaper article is not of the same caliber, I would advise not submitting it, as it will look far less wonderful when compared to the competition. For some reason CC is not linking to the entire thing, so be sure to copy and paste the entire link below including (crosswordeditor)
I’m submitting five letters of recommendation, and I think it’s appropriate. I mean, we are paying 75 dollars for people to read our applications. In the end, you wouldn’t want to regret not sending one in on the off chance that it is the determining factor in your application. However, keep in mind that this is coming from a girl who also doesn’t want to omit any letters.
Alternatively, before wasting $75, you might want to take advice from those who have actual experience with the Harvard admissions process, but that just my opinion.
Just send 1 external recommendation. If everyone sent 3 extras as you propose doing, Harvard would have 111,000 extra recommendations to read. If just one of those recommendations essentially repeats even a little of what has already been said about you, I can see an AO sinking your app just for the arrogance of wasting their time. Good luck!
@taylorharvard Your attitude is exactly why colleges begged the Common App to discontinue the ability of kids to upload additional documentation.
It’s your $75 – but like someone above said, you get your 12 minutes. You water it down with superfluous documents? You choose to not listen when schools clearly say “that extra rec letter isn’t gonna wow us. please don’t” ?
Not a great strategy – esp for a college with a 5-6% admit rate. Not 5-6% from you high school or the top 5-6% from your state. The top 5-6% from the 33,000 best students in the world.
Please rethink this strategy. Earlier you mentioned how you’re not from a background where there are many Ivy type applicants. Please don’t ignore this info. Good luck.
Omg, 6 recs, 5 recs. It’s Harvard. (Or Yale or the other Ivies or Stanford or MIT.) In addition to your academics and those ECs they’re looking for your judgment and the ability to filter and control these impulses matters.
This is like being on stage for 12 minutes. No they don’t want you to say, but please, I have another statement (or another 3) to make.
Same thing comes up with kids who supply a 3 page , single spaced “resume.”
