Does the number of rec letters matter?

[rl91]

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Would submitting more recommendation letters help in your application? For example, if UNTHSC asks for two letters, but 3 being the max, would submitting 3 help in acceptance?

 

[Kuhdaytee]

I'm also applying there, but decided to only send 2 letters. I don't think that extra letters will help for any school. You can potentially email them and ask the same question.

 

[jbizzle]

This is what I was told by one of my professors at my program while joking around one day. They largely base their acceptances on GPA and GRE and sometimes if you were like a D1 athlete or something like that, and they rarely (skim) look at the LOR or personal essays. He said its because: 1) The LORs and essays will all say pretty much the same thing for all applicants. (i.e. This student is great, or as a PT tech this person shows initiative and leadership, or I want to be a PT to help people, blah blah blah) 2) Is there a recommendation letter that is negative? No, because if it was a negative one they wouldn't write it for you in the first place. They would just skim them to see if the people wrote something extraordinary, but other than that, not as important as the GPA and GRE. 3) With the number of applications PT schools receive they don't have time to look at extra stuff.

So then I came back with a question that he couldn't quite answer, which was, "then whats the point of asking for all these LORs". He was like…ummm, program policy bwahahaha. So in my opinion, I don't think extra LORs will do any good. But thats just me.

 

[jquitt]

This is what I was told by one of my professors at my program while joking around one day. They largely base their acceptances on GPA and GRE and sometimes if you were like a D1 athlete or something like that, and they rarely (skim) look at the LOR or personal essays. He said its because: 1) The LORs and essays will all say pretty much the same thing for all applicants. (i.e. This student is great, or as a PT tech this person shows initiative and leadership, or I want to be a PT to help people, blah blah blah) 2) Is there a recommendation letter that is negative? No, because if it was a negative one they wouldn't write it for you in the first place. They would just skim them to see if the people wrote something extraordinary, but other than that, not as important as the GPA and GRE. 3) With the number of applications PT schools receive they don't have time to look at extra stuff.

So then I came back with a question that he couldn't quite answer, which was, "then whats the point of asking for all these LORs". He was like…ummm, program policy bwahahaha. So in my opinion, I don't think extra LORs will do any good. But thats just me.

The professor makes a solid point. I truly question the importance as well.