Is 5 Letters of Recommendation too much?

[PsyDWannabe]

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Hi guys,

I am lucky enough to have a bunch of people who are more than happy to support me through this whole process. My question is that, are 5 LORs too much? They will all be from places that are relevant to the field and they all have nothing but praise for me and my skills, but I do not want to look like I am trying to overcompensate for something.

Thanks for your input 🙂

 

[JockNerd]

I'd send however many the school asks for, no more.

 

[Wildcat06]

I agree with JN, unless it says "at least 3" or something along those lines.

Another way to approach it, if you are applying to a lot of schools, is to utilize all 5 recommenders and just have each do the forms for a few of the schools so that none of the recommenders is overwhelmed.

 

[psychmama]

Unless there are unusual circumstances, I'd stick to the number asked for. An exception could be if the fourth letter writer knows something unique about you that the other writers do not, and you feel the school will be strongly influenced by this additional information. Otherwise, I'd avoid sending more than was asked for. Remember, the schools are deluged with applications and accompanying paperwork.

 

[QClinician]

yes, unless they ask for it 5 is way too much. No one wants to read that many.

 

[erg923]

LORs serve 3 major purposes.
1. Academic potential and intellect
2. research potential
3. personality, work ethic, and interpersonal characteristics.

If your mising one of these, you could do a 4th, but I would not recommend a 5th.

 

[deleted176373]

Hi guys,

I am lucky enough to have a bunch of people who are more than happy to support me through this whole process. My question is that, are 5 LORs too much? They will all be from places that are relevant to the field and they all have nothing but praise for me and my skills, but I do not want to look like I am trying to overcompensate for something.

Thanks for your input 🙂

I did 4 and insured that no one professor could sink my chances at all my schools. So use the 5 letter writers and rotate them through. Send 4 letters if you are concerned that one letter writer could flake on you (I had one of these... great letters but a last minute kind of guy.) Almost denied at one school but since I had 4 writers, it didn't matter that his didn't arrive on time.

So don't send 5, that's just over the top. 4 is reasonable unless they tell you not to do that (one program I applied to specified 3 and NO MORE.)

Mark

 

[childpsych479]

I'm in a similar situation as what Mark has described. I have asked for 4 LORs since one of my letter writers lives on the other side of the country and has been somewhat difficult to maintain communication with throughout this process. I contacted all of the schools that I'm applying to to ask if I could submit a 4th letter. Most of the programs said that this would be fine but a few said that they'd accept it but that my application would be processed once they'd received the required 3.

Good luck!

 

[neuropsyance]

I'd try to stick with 3. Maybe you could evaluate what each letter writer brings to your application? Narrow down what they will focus on, and eliminate whichever letter is most redundant or does not contain as many unique experiences of how great you are [when compared to the other ones.]

 

[BuckeyeAlum]

I asked my boss, an NIH research/clinical psychologist, what to do about this b/c I wanted to send 4 letters to a couple schools. She said that sending 4 letters is OK b/c curiosity often causes the admissions people to read them anyways. To some schools, I think 4 is good, but I wouldn't send 5 unless there is some crazy circumstance that surrounds it.

I am sending 4 to a few schools b/c they accept more than 3 and b/c they stress using undergrad professors as writers. My "top 3" are my thesis advisor/professor, my current boss, and my clinical internship supervisor from a university. These are probably fine, but I wanted to be safe.