Letters of Rec Inquiry Forum

[redecember]

I have three potential people I can ask for LORs.

First one is a faculty member who was the director of the student government I was apart of for 3 years.
Second is a professor who I was pretty close with from a small seminar class.
And lastly, another professor who I didn't really get to know, but aced his class.

I read that having two academic professors write LORs for you is ideal, but seeing my situation, would it be okay to have the first two write my LORs as opposed to having the last professor in place of the director seeing that they know me best? Or should I ask all three?

[ManoftheHour]

Why would you not ask all of them?

That doesn't make sense. Worse comes to worse, you don't have to use them at all. It's better to have them than not.

[redecember]

Why would you not ask all of them?

That doesn't make sense. Worse comes to worse, you don't have to use them at all. It's better to have them than not.

Hypothetically, if I ask them all and the first two are my strongest and the last one is decent, do you think I should send them all? I read that sending only 2 LORs is recommended, and if I send my two strongest, i'm worried that them both not being academic would be a detriment to my application.

[ManoftheHour]

I had ZERO letters of rec from academics last cycle. According to mylsn, I should be barred from the T-20. I got into two schools. Unless HYS, don't worry about LeTTTers of Recommendations. Adcoms all know they're bullshit fluff. The academic letter you're getting from #3 on your list will be exactly that. As long as the letter does not say, "This person is TTTT," the letter is good for most schools. I bet you 99+% of all LORs are the same fluff. No adcom is going to be impressed by that.

With that said, this isn't even the issue. TCR is yes, get the letters first. All 3 if you can. You don't know if one of your professors will decide to not write you one, takes f$&@ing forever, or forgets. It's important to have as many letters as possible on file just in case. You don't want to be waiting for a letter when you are ready to submit. What can hurt having 3 letters on file and just using 2? Besides, most schools accept more than 2. No downside to that at all. Almost every school I applied to accepted more than 2 and recommended that you send 3.