How long is your LOR? Does a short letter hurt? Forum

[KarenJBY]

Hi guys, as I'm on waitlist of several schools, I'm considering to send one more LOR to them.

I have already sent two LORs during the regular application period, and I know one of them is quite long (it's from my boss, he's very helpful, and wrote a letter of three pages, and let me have a look before sending it out).

However, this third recommender gave me a letter of about 250 words. I wonder if I should use it? Thank you guys.

[Ti Malice]

What does it say?

[ManOfTheMinute]

If it says, "Karen is the single best student I have ever had in my 30 years of teaching. I have had dozens of students at Yale, Harvard, and Stanford, and yet Karen is superior to all of them in every way - ranging from intellectual ability to leadership and compassion...."

You get the picture? 250 words of this is golden.

Three pages is probably too long FYI

[KarenJBY]

It said some really nice things, like academic achievements, and good projects, also mentioned a few years ago he wrote a LOR for a girl similar to me, that girl won Fulbright Scholaw later and is a successful lawyer now.

I think he's just too busy to elaborate those nice things...