quality or quantity in LORs?

[bashir]

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I'm applying early decision to my state school, which only requires two letters of recommendation, while allowing more. I have two lined up, but the third- from a former boss- seems unlikely to be forthcoming as the would-be letter writer has cancer and is not doing well. I'm certainly not going to press him about it. Does it seem deficient to only submit two letters? I have other professors I am confident would gladly write me letters even on relatively short notice (I need to be complete by August 1) but they don't know me as well and I'm sure their letters would not be as strong as the two I have already secured. Should I ask one or more of them for letters anyway, if only to prove that more than two people in the world will vouch for me?

 

[bashir]

Anybody?

 

[loveoforganic]

quality by far

 

[JJMrK]

I'm applying early decision to my state school, which only requires two letters of recommendation, while allowing more. I have two lined up, but the third- from a former boss- seems unlikely to be forthcoming as the would-be letter writer has cancer and is not doing well. I'm certainly not going to press him about it. Does it seem deficient to only submit two letters? I have other professors I am confident would gladly write me letters even on relatively short notice (I need to be complete by August 1) but they don't know me as well and I'm sure their letters would not be as strong as the two I have already secured. Should I ask one or more of them for letters anyway, if only to prove that more than two people in the world will vouch for me?

No. If they say they only need two letters, you can submit two letters.

 

[NightOwlPM]

Quality, no question. A lousy LOR can really cause problems.

 

[Hopefullylucky1]

Quality. Only submit letters that you know are very strong. A weak letter can hurt you. Nothing wrong with sending the minimum number of letters.

 

[SirGecko]

You aren't going to impress any schools with the number of letters you send them. All they care about is if they are good letters. The minimum is perfectly fine if the letters are good.

 

[n618ft]

Send them the maximum amount of mediocre letters and tell us how it goes.