Max number of LORs

[amonymous]

Hi there. Does anyone know if an evaluation letter from a committee counts toward the number of letters or recommendation that you send? Namely, I have a committee packet being sent with 3 actual letters plus 1 evaluation letter. Will this count as 3 letters or 4? The reason I ask is because I have 2 more letters that I want to send, but some schools have a max limit of 5.

Also, just curious -- if a school says they will only look at 5 letters and you send 6, what will they do? Will they just read the first 5 they get and ignore the rest, or will they choose 5 letters randomly, or will they still read all 6 but be slightly annoyed?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[altitude]

Hi there. Does anyone know if an evaluation letter from a committee counts toward the number of letters or recommendation that you send? Namely, I have a committee packet being sent with 3 actual letters plus 1 evaluation letter. Will this count as 3 letters or 4? The reason I ask is because I have 2 more letters that I want to send, but some schools have a max limit of 5.

Also, just curious -- if a school says they will only look at 5 letters and you send 6, what will they do? Will they just read the first 5 they get and ignore the rest, or will they choose 5 letters randomly, or will they still read all 6 but be slightly annoyed?

Why send 6 if they only ask for 5? Although sending 6 may seem to us students like "putting in an extra effort" and "going above and beyond", to admissions in would probably appear as an inability to comply with specific directions and would be annoying (when they stated that the maximum is 5 and you're sending 6). 5 letters should be more than enough to get a decent account of you on the behalf of others.

Also, if they bothered to take the time to state a specific maximum, it's probably best to follow it. But, if you think all 6 are amazing and essential for admissions to see, maybe call the school to ask.

(This is just my predictive assumption however, so the opinion of someone with actual experience with this concern may be more appropriate)

 

[Ironmandoc]

Do whatever the school tells you to do.

 

[weezynation]

Why send 6 if they only ask for 5? Although sending 6 may seem to us students like "putting in an extra effort" and "going above and beyond", to admissions in would probably appear as an inability to comply with specific directions and would be annoying (when they stated that the maximum is 5 and you're sending 6). 5 letters should be more than enough to get a decent account of you on the behalf of others.

Also, if they bothered to take the time to state a specific maximum, it's probably best to follow it. But, if you think all 6 are amazing and essential for admissions to see, maybe call the school to ask.

(This is just my predictive assumption however, so the opinion of someone with actual experience with this concern may be more appropriate)

This.

 

[Ashley1989]

As someone else said, don't send more then asked. Doing that will seem like you can't follow simple requests or policies. Or even worse, that although you were given specific instructions, you felt like your way was better so therefore the instructions don't apply to you.

 

[semicharmed]

Do whatever the school tells you to do.

Bam-this. haha-good question, but like a lot of these recent threads you should check with the individual schools, not just ask an online forum! This info should be available on websites and it's an easy question to call the admissions department about. Takes a 2 minute convo.

 

[MsBerry]

Bam-this. haha-good question, but like a lot of these recent threads you should check with the individual schools, not just ask an online forum! This info should be available on websites and it's an easy question to call the admissions department about. Takes a 2 minute convo.

I really wish this information were more easily accessible though. I have a feeling I'm going to wind up calling 30 schools just to have this 2-minute convo. Admissions are probably sick of answering the same questions too. Such of waste of time for everyone involved. Has an excel spreadsheet containing this info been made on SDN yet? If not, I'll put together something once I start calling around.

 

[semicharmed]

I really wish this information were more easily accessible though. I have a feeling I'm going to wind up calling 30 schools just to have this 2-minute convo. Admissions are probably sick of answering the same questions too. Such of waste of time for everyone involved. Has an excel spreadsheet containing this info been made on SDN yet? If not, I'll put together something once I start calling around.

Yeah, I know it can be annoying...but in the end that is what the admissions departments are there for, and they'd rather answer questions that are like this one than questions like "what is your average MCAT score" or "I submitted my secondary yesterday-WHEN WILL I KNOW ABOUT AN INTERVIEW?!?!?!"

It may take you awhile to connect everywhere, but would you really want to simply trust an online chat forum with such an (IMO) important question? Good luck.

 

[weezynation]

I really wish this information were more easily accessible though. I have a feeling I'm going to wind up calling 30 schools just to have this 2-minute convo. Admissions are probably sick of answering the same questions too. Such of waste of time for everyone involved. Has an excel spreadsheet containing this info been made on SDN yet? If not, I'll put together something once I start calling around.

They will definitely have the maximum # of LORs on the website, but when you call, ask if it is ok to send whatever number of letters you have. A lot of my schools require 3 but when I called had no problem with me sending my 4 letters. Now 6, some will say yes, some will say no.

 

[amonymous]

Yeah okay, asking about exceeding the max # was just kind of an aside, but my main question is still whether or not the committee evaluation letter counts as a letter of rec (in terms of contributing to the max #). Just seeing if anyone here knows before I call admissions offices (since it's the weekend).

 

[Acoustica]

Shoot. What do I do if I've already submitted and I've overassigned to multiple schools? Is there anyway to change that, or is it even worth it to try?

 

[rollingstone27]

I really wish this information were more easily accessible though. I have a feeling I'm going to wind up calling 30 schools just to have this 2-minute convo. Admissions are probably sick of answering the same questions too. Such of waste of time for everyone involved. Has an excel spreadsheet containing this info been made on SDN yet? If not, I'll put together something once I start calling around.

Did you start putting together an excel spreadsheet already? Also, I'm curious because a lot of schools have a max of four letters indicated on the MSAR, but I can't find similar information on the actual school website.

I have all of my letter of recommendations compiled and sent off together. So does that mean that I can't have more than four letters in my packet if I'm applying to a school that has a maximum requirement of four? What about the schools that do accept more than four, how can I include them?

 

[rubisco88]

I'd say 3-5 for most schools. For TMDSAS, it's 2-3. Adcoms have enough to read. Don't go over the limit. They will think you can't follow instructions.