Additional rec letters? And best time to submit?

[Homunculus150]

Hello,

I’ve recently been working with a local food pantry through AmeriCorps for my gap year and the director has offered to write me a rec letter multiple times.

From what I can see, the process shouldn’t be too difficult if we can just assign the additional letters through AMCAS.

Is there an optimal time to submit these? I’m planning to send my schools an update sometime in October since my gap year situation has changed significantly from what I described in my secondaries (ScribeAmerica ****ed me over but doing AmeriCorps now). I was thinking of submitting the extra rec letter at around the same time.

Thanks!

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[KnightDoc]

Hello,

I’ve recently been working with a local food pantry through AmeriCorps for my gap year and the director has offered to write me a rec letter multiple times.

From what I can see, the process shouldn’t be too difficult if we can just assign the additional letters through AMCAS.

Is there an optimal time to submit these? I’m planning to send my schools an update sometime in October since my gap year situation has changed significantly from what I described in my secondaries (ScribeAmerica ****ed me over but doing AmeriCorps now). I was thinking of submitting the extra rec letter at around the same time.

Thanks!

What makes you think anyone will look at additional LORs after you have been marked complete?

 

[Homunculus150]

What makes you think anyone will look at additional LORs after you have been marked complete?

That's why I'm asking lol

So are you saying that additional rec letters would a waste of time 100% of time assuming I've already submitted secondaries? An admission's committee wouldn't treat it like an update and would simply ignore it?

 

[KnightDoc]

That's why I'm asking lol

So are you saying that additional rec letters would a waste of time 100% of time assuming I've already submitted secondaries? An admission's committee wouldn't treat it like an update and would simply ignore it?

It depends and it's very school specific. Same for updates. Some schools welcome them and some don't. Some will take them anytime, others only after an interview. So you really need to either check the school specific threads or call the schools.

Unlike updates, LORs are a required part of the application. Once an application is marked complete, it goes into a queue to be reviewed. Schools typically don't mess around with an app after that time to swap LORs in and out, or add them, although there will definitely be exceptions to this, especially if you are under the maximum number of LORs they will consider and you want to add. Again, you need to check with each school, but many won't let you touch them once you are complete.

 

[Homunculus150]

Remember you will be submitting an additional LOR. This could imply that you are requesting that your be removed from complete status, reopen, have this letter added to the file, get evaluated and now be marked complete where it should be properly put at bottom of review queue, this losing your previous spot. If you want to risk that, go ahead

Gotcha, I didn’t know that additional letters could potentially reset the status of my app; I thought they would be treated like updates.

Glad to know; I’ll do some more research on this but I’m leaning against the additional letter now.

 

[KnightDoc]

Gotcha, I didn’t know that additional letters could potentially reset the status of my app; I thought they would be treated like updates.

Glad to know; I’ll do some more research on this but I’m leaning against the additional letter now.

When in doubt, just call the schools. It might or might not reset the clock. They also might or might not allow you to do it at all. My original point, which you now get, is that you shouldn't take for granted that making a change to a completed application (additional LOR) is as simple as an update, which is really nothing more than a supplement to an application that might or might not even be looked at, even if it is accepted.