4 Letters of Rec Forum
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NotoriousRBG5604
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 4:59 pm
4 Letters of Rec
I know that it is typically advised to submit 2 stellar letters of recommendation rather than adding 1 or 2 more letters of rec (for the schools that allow it) that are less than stellar... but if all 4 of my letters of rec would be really great, would it still be bad to submit that many to the schools that allow up to 4? Or is 4 letters of recommendation always overkill?
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cavalier1138
- Posts: 8007
- Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2016 8:01 pm
Re: 4 Letters of Rec
I mean, it sounds like overkill by default, but I guess it could be fine if they're all from different enough sources.
The problem is that I can't actually envision four different people who would offer four different enough perspectives to justify them all being presented. I had one letter from an old professor and one from my boss. I could probably have gotten another letter from a different professor as well, but there would have been very little point, as their perspective wouldn't have been that different from what I was already sending in.
So if you have four fantastically different people who have written good letters, then go for it. But if you think that one or two are basically repeating the same things, then there's no point in sending the extras.
The problem is that I can't actually envision four different people who would offer four different enough perspectives to justify them all being presented. I had one letter from an old professor and one from my boss. I could probably have gotten another letter from a different professor as well, but there would have been very little point, as their perspective wouldn't have been that different from what I was already sending in.
So if you have four fantastically different people who have written good letters, then go for it. But if you think that one or two are basically repeating the same things, then there's no point in sending the extras.
