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Three or four recommendations?

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:48 pm
by studyingeveryday
Some schools only accept three recommendations, but for those who accept four--is it worth it to have four if all four would be strong recs, or would schools only prefer the minimum required amount?

(I'll also be asking a few specific schools, but just wondering about whether there's a general consensus about this.

Re: Three or four recommendations?

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:57 pm
by LikelyThrowaway
If strong means four people absolutely raving about you (bonus points if they're talking about a highlight of your application that you weren't able to flesh out in essays), sure, four is probably good. If it's anything less than that lofty bar, though, it's overkill.

Three is a good max unless in cases of special circumstances.

Re: Three or four recommendations?

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2016 10:07 pm
by Blueprint Mithun
studyingeveryday wrote:Some schools only accept three recommendations, but for those who accept four--is it worth it to have four if all four would be strong recs, or would schools only prefer the minimum required amount?

(I'll also be asking a few specific schools, but just wondering about whether there's a general consensus about this.
If a school accepts four recommendations, and you can provide four strong one, then by all means go for it. But if you're not sure that they will all be equally strong, don't feel pressured to include a fourth just for completion's sake.