Should You Ask For an Additional Recommendation Letter?

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Should You Ask For an Additional Recommendation Letter?

Your letters of recommendation for college are an integral piece of your application. This part of the process is often overlooked, as it does not require work from your end. But every recommendation letter deserves thoughtful reflection!

Your college recommendations are the only time that admissions officers will hear from an objective third party about who you are. Finding a recommender who will vouch for you is crucial.

When it comes to college recommendations, students often stress about whom to ask. Most colleges ask for one letter from the student’s counselor, and two from their teachers. But what if you feel like these teachers don’t really know you? Or can’t speak to what you’re passionate about?

Most schools allow you to submit an additional recommendation from anyone of your choice – not necessarily another teacher. While this additional perspective may shed more light on your character and interests, it could potentially hurt your application. Read below to learn the pros and cons of having an additional recommendation letter.

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Reasons to consider an additional recommendation letter

1. You’ve had significant involvement in an activity outside of school:

Many students do incredible things outside of the classroom, whether it’s a job, research, or a significant volunteer experience. That in itself can be covered in the Common app activities list, but if there is an adult that knows you well personally, academically, and professionally in said activity, then consider asking them for a recommendation letter. If you’re still unsure, consider Brown’s advice on an extra recommender as someone who has “unique knowledge of certain strengths or accomplishments that would not be addressed in the required recommendation letters.”

2. You don’t know your academic recommenders that well

Most schools are pretty explicit about the main recommenders being high school teachers (and some schools, like MIT, are clear about which subject areas they should teach). However, you might have legitimate reasons to believe that your recommenders might not paint the whole picture of you in their recommendation letter. Maybe you’ve switched schools 4 times throughout your high school career or you attend a school with an average class size of 40 students, with little opportunity to build a rapport with your teachers. Of course, this is a special case as there are steps you can take to start building relationships with your teachers to get a glowing recommendation letter. But if you feel like your teachers cannot speak about you in a personal way, it is worth considering an additional recommendation letter.

3. The school requires an additional letter:

Davidson and Dartmouth are just two of many schools that require a peer letter of recommendation for admission, while Wheaton College (Illinois) requires a pastoral recommendation letter. Be sure to do your best to submit materials that a school “highly encourages” or “highly recommends.”

Reasons why you shouldn’t submit an additional letter

1. The person is impressive, but doesn’t know you very well:

Remember that the purpose of these letters is for admissions officers to get a sense of you as a person, how you behave in the classroom, and what type of impact you have in your community. A generic recommendation letter from the superintendent of the school district is, by the previous definition, useless to your application. Still need more convincing? A former director of international admissions at Dartmouth recounts that in past letters from ex-presidents and celebrities, it was a letter written by a school custodian that has stood out the most to her.

2. The school doesn’t consider them or subtly discourages them:

Some schools don’t consider recommendation letters in their admissions process (University of Washington, University of California System, UT Austin). Others don’t outright ban extra letters, but want the student to be critical about the additional materials they submit. Yale, for example, asks you “not [to] solicit this additional letter unless you feel it will add substantially to your application.” Princeton phrases it similarly:

We believe that the required teacher and guidance counselor references give us much of the information we need to make thoughtful, well-informed decisions. Additional letters are only helpful if the person writing the recommendation knows the candidate well and can provide new, detailed information

3. There’s no new, valuable information to add

It’s no secret that application readers have to read and process A LOT of information in a short period of time. Consequently, they’ve become experts in identifying fluff material. Don’t overburden them with additional reading material that just repeats information found elsewhere in your application.

 

When it comes to an additional recommendation letter, one-size-fits-all advice will not apply. Ultimately, you’ll have to make a decision based on your own experiences and the school’s specific requirements.

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