Limit on Letters of Rec.....

[bealestreet]

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I've noticed that many schools set a limit on how many letters of rec. they want. One school requests three letters, all from faculty members, and discourages any more than that. I have some letters from doctors and other people from significant volunteer and work experiences that might be valuable in letting the school get to know me. Do most schools really look down on sending more than the required amount??

 

[Neuronix]

Last I heard, only Tulane has a maximum. Unless the school explicitly sets a limit for LORs, send as many as you want! The more excellent LORs, the better in most cases.

My application had 9 LORs. Yes, this is extreme. Then again, I also did well in the application game.

Good luck!

 

[Jsscales05]

Wow and I thought 5 was alot. . .I guess I might have had six since FL schools want peer review letters also.

 

[czarbasch]

I had 7 LORs sent along with my committee letter and so far I have 7 interviews (it must be my lucky # ?ha).

If they are good letters and actually say something about your character by all means include them but if they are just your plain old boring letters I wouldn?t send too many. I think really good LORs can do a lot for an applicant because it lets the committee know what others think of you.

 

[CrazyCozak]

Originally posted by czarbasch
I think really good LORs can do a lot for an applicant because it lets the committee know what others think of you.

A question along the side about good LORs.. if you have a very good LOR from an instructor who knew you very well, but the LOR is around 4 years old, would it be still acceptable?

 

[jlee9531]

i just always sent the recommended amount that the school asks for. some of hte schools i had only wanted 3 but for a good part of them since they didnt really list a limit......i just sent in all 5.

but yeah i would just send in the number they want you to send if they specifically ask for a certain number. wouldnt want to take a chance and piss them off for you not following directions.

 

[czarbasch]

Originally posted by CrazyCozak
A question along the side about good LORs.. if you have a very good LOR from an instructor who knew you very well, but the LOR is around 4 years old, would it be still acceptable?

If the letter was written during your time in college and it pertains to knowledge or skills gained during that time, I think it will be alright. However, if you can, you might want to ask the instructor if he/she could just rewrite the old letter with a new current date.

 

[1150829]

Originally posted by jlee9531
but yeah i would just send in the number they want you to send if they specifically ask for a certain number. wouldnt want to take a chance and piss them off for you not following directions.

hmm... most of the schools i applied to set a limit on the number of LORS, ranging from 3-6. but my premed committee has a policy that they send everything in the file (i have 6 letters + committee letter) and you don't get to pick and choose. i've already (repeatedly) talked to them about this, but they won't budge so it's really out of my hands. i hope the schools won't "get pissed off at me for not following directions." 🙁

 

[Spacekat]

I called and asked about this because I've been very busy since I finished undergrad so there was a lot of ground to cover in letters.

The admissions lady was, I guess, feeling outlandishly candid that day. She told me that although the school in question claimed to have a strict limit of three letters, the truth was that they just got tired of frantic, overachieving candidates (which, based on a casual survey of today's pre-allopathic posts, describes a fairly large proportion of us) sending 12 bazillion letters "just in case." Apparently the administrative burden that creates was getting to them.

What that means in terms of what you should do I'm not certain, but I can say that, at least in some cases, calling and asking them about it is a good idea. Then again, you might get an answer you don't like, and it's always easier to beg forgiveness than work around denied permission😀 Perhaps you should just launch the battery and send flowers to the secretary later.

I agree that you should not send fluffy LOR's just to make your file thicker, but that, like Neuronix, I had good luck with including a decent spread.

 

[Amy B]

Hi, I am also using older letters. I have 2 from 2001 (It hasn't been an issue at my interviews) and 4 from this year. Our pre-med committee sends all letters. They won't only send 2 or 3 depending on which ones we want them to send. So they send 6 to each of my schools.