<p>Hi everybody!
I know many universities say that two teacher recommendations and one counselor's letter are enough, but since I'm an international student, I wonder if it would be useful to add one more letter from State Department worker. I was participating in Youth Leadership Program (Ive spent 1 month in the US) and she got to know me really well through my project, so she offered to write it for me. Should I say yes? On the one hand, I'd love it, because I feel the admission officers would kind of respect the opinion of the State Department (and American citizen as well) more, than my teacher's opinion. (I know this sounds absurd, but it makes me wonder).
But, on the other hand, I don't want to annoy them with too much information.</p>
<p>P.S. How strict is Brown when they say they don't encourage any additional letters?</p>
<p>If the school do allow additional recommendation and it will cover a different aspect of you that may not be mentioned in the other recommendations, why not. Just make sure you don’t overwhelm the adcom with redundant LORs.</p>
<p>Former State Department person here – It’s my understanding that it’s possible to do well on TOEFL and still not really speak conversational and academic English well enough to succeed in a classroom. That’s what a letter from the person you describe might address – Just have her write something about how you adapted well to the US culture, and that your English skills were awesome and more than sufficient for doing well in an American university setting. If I were an admissions person, I’d appreciate seeing that letter because it would save me a step – if, for example, you had a great TOEFL score but I was wondering whether your written and spoken English were actually sufficient to do college level work. I wouldn’t have to investigate that problem further because I’d have an answer.</p>
Anyone else?</p>