Strategies for assigning letters of recommendation, avoid putting all your eggs into one basket?

[deleted965528]

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I'm sure we've all heard of horror stories of an applicant seemingly having STRONG letters (or at the very least, non-red flag letters). But then the applicant finds out, through one way or another, one of their letter writers wrote something that put them in a bad light, whether due to good intent, malicious intent, or an attempt to appear honest/unbiased.

Is it a good idea to send the letters I believe are the strongest to all the schools I am applying to, or should I choose to send not-as-strong letters (or a method of alternating letters between schools) for some school to avoid "putting all my eggs in one basket"?

 

[907914]

I'm sure we've all heard of horror stories of an applicant seemingly having STRONG letters (or at the very least, non-red flag letters). But then the applicant finds out, through one way or another, one of their letter writers wrote something that put them in a bad light, whether due to good intent, malicious intent, or an attempt to appear honest/unbiased.

Is it a good idea to send the letters I believe are the strongest to all the schools I am applying to, or should I choose to send not-as-strong letters for some school to avoid "putting all my eggs in one basket"?

I sent some letters to some schools and some to others. Gotta do trial and error. I usually sent the maximum letters each school allowed because I am annoying and gotta run that YOLO life.

 

[907914]

I'm sure we've all heard of horror stories of an applicant seemingly having STRONG letters (or at the very least, non-red flag letters). But then the applicant finds out, through one way or another, one of their letter writers wrote something that put them in a bad light, whether due to good intent, malicious intent, or an attempt to appear honest/unbiased.

Is it a good idea to send the letters I believe are the strongest to all the schools I am applying to, or should I choose to send not-as-strong letters (or a method of alternating letters between schools) for some school to avoid "putting all my eggs in one basket"?

Basically, just use your best judgment. If you think your letters Are good then they likely are. There really is no incentive for any of your letter writers to write a bad letter. If you worry that there is potential he some thing in there then don’t send it to any school. If you have a couple of schools that you think the contents of it could contribute to then send it to those ones. If you don’t get any interview invites from both schools then you know there was something bad in there.

 

[deleted965528]

Basically, just use your best judgment. If you think your letters Are good then they likely are. There really is no incentive for any of your letter writers to write a bad letter. If you worry that there is potential he some thing in there then don’t send it to any school. If you have a couple of schools that you think the contents of it could contribute to then send it to those ones. If you don’t get any interview invites from both schools then you know there was something bad in there.

I'm more worried about the off-chance that a writer thinks they're writing something great but ends up coming off as a red-flag to admissions, or the "I gotta tell it as it is, good and bad" letters (one of my supervisors for an MME is like that during in-person conversations but I've worked with him for a long time)

 

[907914]

I'm more worried about the off-chance that a writer thinks they're writing something great but ends up coming off as a red-flag to admissions, or the "I gotta tell it as it is, good and bad" letters (one of my supervisors for an MME is like that during in-person conversations but I've worked with him for a long time)

Unless you killed a chihuahua or robbed a bakery, ADCOMs will likely roll their eyes at the bad stuff and not view it negatively