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Many schools have a maximum and a minimum number of LORs allowed. I'm wondering whether or not it makes any difference if you send in two LORs as opposed to three or four.

Also please comment on how many you sent in. Thanks.

GettingReady2010 wrote:Many schools have a maximum and a minimum number of LORs allowed. I'm wondering whether or not it makes any difference if you send in two LORs as opposed to three or four.

Also please comment on how many you sent in. Thanks.

Unless they're really strong, I don't think it will make a big difference. Personally, i'm only sending in the minimum (2). Doing this ensures that I only get strong LOR, and minimizes my chances to get a weak or "damning with faint praise" letters. I've been told the your PS is more important than your LOR's.

I think it really depends on the quality of those letters.

If you have four absolutely glowing recs from different professors/employers, then yea, it probably helps -- but just a little bit. If one or more of those letters though is kind of generic, like knockglock said, seems like it'd do more harm than good.

LOR's are overrated.

That's kind of what I was thinking. I didn't know if sending in only to would be perceived as only doing the minimum while sending more show initiative.

Knockglock wrote:

GettingReady2010 wrote:Many schools have a maximum and a minimum number of LORs allowed. I'm wondering whether or not it makes any difference if you send in two LORs as opposed to three or four.

Also please comment on how many you sent in. Thanks.

Unless they're really strong, I don't think it will make a big difference. Personally, i'm only sending in the minimum (2). Doing this ensures that I only get strong LOR, and minimizes my chances to get a weak or "damning with faint praise" letters. I've been told the your PS is more important than your LOR's.

I always thought so.

I guess a better question for the poll would have been whether or not sending in the minimum hurts your apps even a little.

I was planning on sending the two standard academic letters of recommendation plus one from the director of a drum and bugle corps that I was a leader in. (check out http://www.dci.org) The drum corps was an incredibly important experience for me, but I don't want to waste my entire personal statement describing and explaining it so I'm hoping that the LOR will serve to highlight and elaborate on that line of my resume

Like others have said, only send in strong LORs. If you only happen to have 2 strong LORs, only send those. If you happen to have 3 strong LORs, send all 3 or send 2 and keep one in the hopes of supplementing your application if you get held or WLed.

Good luck!!!

Here is the approximate breakdown of importance in the parts of the application -

LSAT - 55%
GPA - 35%
(These two values can be switched, depending on the school.)

Personal statement - 9%
Addenda - 0.5%
LOR's - 0.5%


LOR's do not matter that much. You need to have them, but aside from that, it won't make much difference. Everyone has great -to-outstanding LOR's. Unless the President of the United States is a close personal friend, it won't matter that much. At an absolute best, if you are an exact number twin with someone and every other factor is equal, a good LOR might possibly be the tiebreaker. Or it might not.

Given how many applications they read, it's probably better to send in what they ask for. If they ask for a minimum of two, sending in five probably will not be appreciated. The less the person has to read, the better.





Now, cue the people who swear by God and Sonny Jesus that it was absolutely, unfailingly, without a doubt, in no uncertain terms the LOR from (boss / professor / pimp) that got them in to XYZ school.

kalvano wrote:Here is the approximate breakdown of importance in the parts of the application -

LSAT - 55%
GPA - 35%
(These two values can be switched, depending on the school.)

Personal statement - 8%
Addenda - 0.5%
LOR's - 0.5%
Softs - 1%

URM - bonus 20%

Fixed it a little.

kalvano wrote:Here is the approximate breakdown of importance in the parts of the application -

LSAT - 55%
GPA - 35%
(These two values can be switched, depending on the school.)

Personal statement - 9%
Addenda - 0.5%
LOR's - 0.5%


LOR's do not matter that much. You need to have them, but aside from that, it won't make much difference. Everyone has great -to-outstanding LOR's. Unless the President of the United States is a close personal friend, it won't matter that much. At an absolute best, if you are an exact number twin with someone and every other factor is equal, a good LOR might possibly be the tiebreaker. Or it might not.

Given how many applications they read, it's probably better to send in what they ask for. If they ask for a minimum of two, sending in five probably will not be appreciated. The less the person has to read, the better.





Now, cue the people who swear by God and Sonny Jesus that it was absolutely, unfailingly, without a doubt, in no uncertain terms the LOR from (boss / professor / pimp) that got them in to XYZ school.

This is how I would put it:

LSAT - 50%
GPA - 40%
Personal statement - 5%
Softs - 3% (you get all these points for having basic softs; however, if you have really good softs, this number can increase)
LOR's - 2%

This should help...

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Leaving softs out wasn't an accident.