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I'm trying to get a general consensus regarding how many letters of rec are appropriate to submit.

Take, for example, Virginia's guidelines: 2 Required / 2 Recommended / 4 Accepted

My question is: Is it generally understood that you should send as many as possible, assuming that as long as the letters aren't negative, they can only help show different perspectives not otherwise available in your application?

I ask because I have a friend currently in dental school and another currently applying for a Master's in hospital administration. They said that unless the extra letters over the minimum required / recommended amount are absolutely fantastic and very unique, you risk the admissions committee getting annoyed and choosing randomly only a couple of the letters to read.

In my case, I have two letters that I'm confident are very strong (one from an academic advisor and another from the dean of my college who also taught one of my courses). But I also have two additional letters, one from the clerk of court at the US federal district court where I interned and another from a professor. I'm assuming that both of these letters, from gauging their personalities and tendencies, are fairly "stock" and unexceptional. They will say good things, but I doubt that they are amazing letters.

Ultimately, I'm like to submit the first 2 great letters and a third letter from the clerk of court (simply because it shows my work outside the classroom and interest in the legal arena). Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Send in your two best academic letters. Save your other letters in case of waitlist.

beachbum wrote:Send in your two best academic letters. Save your other letters in case of waitlist.

Do this.

Appreciate the help.

Some of the Deans quoted in Montauk's book said sending too many can "show poor judgment." His advice is to send more than the required number ONLY if they add additional information about you (i.e., even a great 3rd letter shouldn't be sent unless it gives substantially different insight from the first 2).

trutherd wrote:Some of the Deans quoted in Montauk's book said sending too many can "show poor judgment." His advice is to send more than the required number ONLY if they add additional information about you (i.e., even a great 3rd letter shouldn't be sent unless it gives substantially different insight from the first 2).

Good general advice, but some schools specifically recommend more than the minimum required, e.g. Michigan (1 required, 3 suggested) and Berkeley (0 required, 2 recommended).

I was reading the Amazon top seller "The Law School Admission Game- Play Like an Expert" by Ann Levine, Esq and she specifically lists 4 LORS to stay away from and Internship LORS are listed as Number 3. She goes into great depth as to why not to include these pg 65. Im suprised none of the above posters mentioned this.

trutherd wrote:Some of the Deans quoted in Montauk's book said sending too many can "show poor judgment." His advice is to send more than the required number ONLY if they add additional information about you (i.e., even a great 3rd letter shouldn't be sent unless it gives substantially different insight from the first 2).

Yeah, this is good advice, but you also have to look at the specific schools to which you are applying and meet their "recommended" number.

I, for example, am sending 2 academic and 1 employment.

I also have 1 academic saved for any possible waitlists.