If schools accept 4 recs should I send 4? Forum

[christinalsat]

I have 4 letters of rec. They are all from very different people and contribute to my application in different ways. If a school accepts four should I send four, or is this going overboard?

[whymeohgodno]

No

[christinalsat]

Ok, I was thrown off by this when I was assigning LORs:

Required: 2
Recommended: 2
Accepted: 4

Or something to that extent.

[whymeohgodno]

Over 2 is repetitive.

[omninode]

That's interesting. I always thought the prevailing wisdom was that you should send as many good letters as you can get. Seems wierd to stop at two when many schools accept up to three.

[whymeohgodno]

Everyone thinks they have "good" LOR's.

[im_blue]

They can't all be equally good. Go with the best 2-3.

[AreJay711]

3 can be used effectively as log as they aren't repetitive.

[Emeth!]

I'm sending 3 (2 profs and 1 boss) to every school that allows me. is this a bad idea?

[swilson215]

Ok, I was thrown off by this when I was assigning LORs:

Required: 2
Recommended: 2
Accepted: 4

Or something to that extent.

Good advice that I got from a few people was to send 2 (or 3) and save one in case you get waitlisted or held. Good luck!

[christinalsat]

That is awesome advice. What makes it difficult is that I only got the chance to see one of my recs and that rec is very strong. It's from a senior staff person who doesn't supervise me, but works very closely with me.

I have one rec from a professor which I obviously have to send to every school. A rec from an ex-congressperson which I think will probably be pretty good since he has been very invested in my law school applications, but probably not stellar since he is also extremely busy. The last rec is from my supervisor -- which I know schools prefer if you don't have a second prof rec. The thing is, that rec is a black box. My supervisor knows my weaknesses better than any of the other recommenders. We have definitely butted heads a couple times, but maintain a good relationship as far as I know. I don't think he'd go into detail about them, but you never know. Then again, because he knows me so well, his rec could be the strongest of the four and I could be doing myself a total disservice by not including it. I really have no idea and it feels like a total crap shoot.

[im_blue]

That is awesome advice. What makes it difficult is that I only got the chance to see one of my recs and that rec is very strong. It's from a senior staff person who doesn't supervise me, but works very closely with me.

I have one rec from a professor which I obviously have to send to every school. A rec from an ex-congressperson which I think will probably be pretty good since he has been very invested in my law school applications, but probably not stellar since he is also extremely busy. The last rec is from my supervisor -- which I know schools prefer if you don't have a second prof rec. The thing is, that rec is a black box. My supervisor knows my weaknesses better than any of the other recommenders. We have definitely butted heads a couple times, but maintain a good relationship as far as I know. I don't think he'd go into detail about them, but you never know. Then again, because he knows me so well, his rec could be the strongest of the four and I could be doing myself a total disservice by not including it. I really have no idea and it feels like a total crap shoot.

I would cut out the congressperson, since it sounds like a weak to medium LOR that doesn't say much about you, and will likely even hurt you.

[kehoema2]

I know alot of people on TLS will tell you over 2 is repetitive, and it may well be, but I would read the application carefully. If it says they accept up to four, I would probably not send them all. If it says they encourage/recommend (or something similar) sending 3/4 then I would send them.

[christinalsat]

That is awesome advice. What makes it difficult is that I only got the chance to see one of my recs and that rec is very strong. It's from a senior staff person who doesn't supervise me, but works very closely with me.

I have one rec from a professor which I obviously have to send to every school. A rec from an ex-congressperson which I think will probably be pretty good since he has been very invested in my law school applications, but probably not stellar since he is also extremely busy. The last rec is from my supervisor -- which I know schools prefer if you don't have a second prof rec. The thing is, that rec is a black box. My supervisor knows my weaknesses better than any of the other recommenders. We have definitely butted heads a couple times, but maintain a good relationship as far as I know. I don't think he'd go into detail about them, but you never know. Then again, because he knows me so well, his rec could be the strongest of the four and I could be doing myself a total disservice by not including it. I really have no idea and it feels like a total crap shoot.

I would cut out the congressperson, since it sounds like a weak to medium LOR that doesn't say much about you, and will likely even hurt you.

Maybe I am just being overly optimistic, but I think he probably put more time into it than that. He actually just called me to go over edits to my personal statement (which none of my recommenders have done), so he is more invested in this than your typical "famous person" recommender would be. Without revealing too much info, he's also an ex-law school professor (no it's not Obama :-p). It's not a totally random person.