Will adcoms get pissed if...

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

radi0headfan

Full Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2006
Messages
374
Reaction score
0
...I send them 7 LOR's?

Here's the breakdown: 2 science professors, 1 non-science professor, 1 from past supervisor, 1 from research lab, and 2 from volunteering coordinators at hospitals.

For the schools with limits, I'll follow those, but for the other ones that just say "At least 2/3 letters", would 7 be just way too much or? I figured the more info about me, the better. Thoughts?

Thanks.
 
...I send them 7 LOR's?

Here's the breakdown: 2 science professors, 1 non-science professor, 1 from past supervisor, 1 from research lab, and 2 from volunteering coordinators at hospitals.

For the schools with limits, I'll follow those, but for the other ones that just say "At least 2/3 letters", would 7 be just way too much or? I figured the more info about me, the better. Thoughts?

Thanks.

Seven is excessive. Even if schools don't have maximum limits, they don't want to read that much about you when they have to sort through thousands of applications. If you feel like you have to max it out, go with about five because that's usually the limit for the schools that impose LOR limits. But really, it would be better to find the best quality letters that meet their minimum requirements and only send those.
 
Seven is excessive. Even if schools don't have maximum limits, they don't want to read that much about you when they have to sort through thousands of applications. If you feel like you have to max it out, go with about five because that's usually the limit for the schools that impose LOR limits. But really, it would be better to find the best quality letters that meet their minimum requirements and only send those.

7 is kinda a lot if you don't have a committee letter...
 
A good rule of thumb is no more than twice what they ask for. So if they say they want three, then six is an absolute max. Personally, I think five is a reasonable max. Adding a sixth just seems excessive..
 
Harvard's limit is 6....so maybe I should just cut one letter out and go with that for all the rest of the schools. I already sent 7 letters to 4 schools, so for the rest of them I guess I'll just send out 6.

So for the letter to cut out, one of the 2 science letters is from a junior college. Should I cut that one out? Or should I cut out one of the hospital recommendations? I have a recommendation from '05-'06 and one from 06'-'07... i hear it's better to use the most recent one, but in my case, the better letter is the older one is probably the older one. Which one to delete?

Thanks again!
 
some schools' premed offices won't customize for you so if you have seven letters every school gets all seven or they get none
 
A good rule of thumb is no more than twice what they ask for. So if they say they want three, then six is an absolute max. Personally, I think five is a reasonable max. Adding a sixth just seems excessive..

😕

You can send however many letters you want. It's up to the adcom to choose whether or not they want to read them. If there's too many, they'll just ignore a few.
 
...I send them 7 LOR's?

Here's the breakdown: 2 science professors, 1 non-science professor, 1 from past supervisor, 1 from research lab, and 2 from volunteering coordinators at hospitals.

For the schools with limits, I'll follow those, but for the other ones that just say "At least 2/3 letters", would 7 be just way too much or? I figured the more info about me, the better. Thoughts?

Thanks.

As a nontrad, 7 is not unreasonable, as you may have prior grad schools, prior employers etc. I'm pretty sure I had 7-8 and it was fine. For a trad it's probably too many.
 
As a nontrad, 7 is not unreasonable, as you may have prior grad schools, prior employers etc. I'm pretty sure I had 7-8 and it was fine. For a trad it's probably too many.

I'm a non-trad so I have a supervisor in there, and I have a couple of volunteering experiences at hospitals that are about a year apart from each other. Did you send 7-8 to the schools that had limits as well or?
 
😕

You can send however many letters you want. It's up to the adcom to choose whether or not they want to read them. If there's too many, they'll just ignore a few.

Yea, that's also I thought would happen. But I recently asked someone about it, and they flipped out when I told them how many I was using so I figured I should post and get more opinions. 😕
 
Did you send 7-8 to the schools that had limits as well or?

I don't think I paid much attention to those limits once a former adcom told me that schools had different letter expectations for career changer nontrads. But I don't know for a fact that this didn't hurt me some places, so don't go by what I did.
 
Yea, that's also I thought would happen. But I recently asked someone about it, and they flipped out when I told them how many I was using so I figured I should post and get more opinions. 😕

Myths are everywhere, my friend. If you have 7 quality LORs, then send 7 LORs. If you're sending a few just to say you're sending, you're diluting the better ones. But it's totally up to you. As Law2Doc mentioned, your standing my require lots of letters. Schools don't have enough time or energy to care if you send more than the recommended letters. They simply won't read the excess ones.
 
I have 7 letters in my VE. However, one is my committee letter and three are the letters that make up the committee letter. Then I have three outside letters. Med schools seem to consider the committee letter and those that make it up as one letter, for some reason, so I guess I actually have 4.
 
I have 7 letters in my VE. However, one is my committee letter and three are the letters that make up the committee letter. Then I have three outside letters. Med schools seem to consider the committee letter and those that make it up as one letter, for some reason, so I guess I actually have 4.

Yea, I'll have 8 including the cover letter that our pre-med office gives us. It's not a committee letter, just a list reiterating the letters in our file.
 
It shouldn't be a problem so long as they're above generic and mediocre. I have 6 myself: 2 sciences, 2 non-sciences, 1 physician, 1 premed advisor
 
...I send them 7 LOR's?

Here's the breakdown: 2 science professors, 1 non-science professor, 1 from past supervisor, 1 from research lab, and 2 from volunteering coordinators at hospitals.

For the schools with limits, I'll follow those, but for the other ones that just say "At least 2/3 letters", would 7 be just way too much or? I figured the more info about me, the better. Thoughts?

Thanks.
Many schools limit the number of LORs to six. If you're wanting to send a seventh, I suggest contacting the school(s) where you plan to send the extra letter and get permission before you do it.
 
It really depends what they are and how repetitive they are - use good judgement. If they're all professors, then frankly thats not that useful if you didn't work with them personally - pick 2 science and 1 nonscience and cut the rest.

If they're outside stuff: jobs, volunteer stuff, etc. and all the writers have a very different perspective of you then go for it.

I sent 6: 2 sci, 1 non-sci, 2 different bosses from different positions I worked in during undergrad, 1 doctor who ran the volunteer clinic I worked at. But I listened to the limits at schools that had them - most do. I only sent all 6 letters to a few schools out of the 20 I applied to.
 
Top