You can use the personal/ optional additional recommendation form to get their recommendation.
Thanks, can I access that through gateway?
Nevermind, after a few minutes of struggling, I finally decided to take to google (my ultimate savior) and found the form lol.
I just realized, I only emailed Exeter and Andover admissions but I want to send these extra recs to all schools I’m applying to. I’m assuming all of these schools accept extra recs through email (is that correct? Applying to Choate, Loomis, Concord, Cate, Taft, and Mercersburg) do I have to send an email as a heads-up before hand or can I just have my recommenders directly send it to them no heads up on my part?
I know I am asking lots of questions about recommendations, but I have yet another one. At my Andover interview I was asked to get a special interest recommendation from the leader from the sustainability org I work in. However, I haven’t known them long (3 months) and I don’t know them well (& vice versa) but I think they can talk abt my interest in environmental activism.
I independently volunteer weekly now and literally volunteer with the org online only. In my app, I said I’ve been in the organization for one year. I started in the earlier in the year but I thought that saying 0 years wouldn’t be fair since I volunteered for more than 6 months by that time and did the math to find that it would be a year by the time my app is submitted AND I was also independently volunteering way before that (I just thought to put it under one umbrella to save space for other ec’s). Firstly, I’m worried that this rec will lead to questioning of the authenticity of my app. I promise, I did the full year if you count in all my volunteering and environmental awareness contests, but how do you recommend I prove that to the AO’s with my independent volunteering?
Going back to rec letters, since the Andover AO asked me of this, I feel obligated to acquire the letter even if it is extremely weak, but I was wondering if I should ask them to send a rec letter to the other schools I’m applying to as well. I’m kind of panicking rn and I honestly don’t want to have the leader send the letter (I think it will do more harm than good) but the AO said so and my parents want me to have the letter sent to every school I’m applying to 
. Andover isn’t a top top choice school so I’ll survive with that but I’m really not sure about sending it to other schools. Thanks for reading my long post!
Yes you can find them on gateway. Also have your recommenders send it to admissions’ email for the particular school. Also 3-4 letters are optimal. If you have more you need a strong reason, other wise “it just looks like you are trying to compensate for something else”. The previous is from a 15 year AO at a conference and they said the same when someone asked the question specifically. One more letter will not sway their decision. They already have enough info from other letters
Having “only” the required letters or only one more for some schools, but having every single one completed is fine?
Yes should be fine
That makes sense. The reason I want I recommendation letter from the leader of the Sustainability org is so admissions officers can see how I am contributing to my community outside of school (as all my rec letters are from teachers as of right now). The Andover AO said that it would shine a light on things that are of value to me other than academics and therefore let AO’s view me more holistically. I provided the leader with tons of information to write about including a brag sheet, multiple paragraphs on why I want to go to boarding school, and the content I want them to write about. Do you think this all of this is a valid reason to have this person send the rec letter to schools?
Sorry for just jumping from topic to topic here, but one of my main ec’s is art so I was thinking about including an art portfolio. People who know how to assemble one, could you provide me with some info on how to do so? Like what website I should use or how many pieces to include etc. Thank you!
Update: they actually sent me the letter. The scoring was the highest for most of them but the short answers were 3 words max lol, not even full sentences. Should I ask them to add some more personalized details even if I was given ‘high scores’?
edit: is it even allowed to view the letter? I’ve heard a lot of the people on cc saying they viewed it but I thought this was supposed to be confidential. Should I be worried?
I’m sorry but what scoring?
On the letter of recs, there is kind of a scoring thing where they score your characteristics. For ex., integrity/honesty: one of the top few, top 10%, okay, below average, n/a (not exactly but something like that)
How did you view your letter?
Ohhh yeah! I mean ifthey canwrite morethat would be great, butit depends on your relation with the person.
They just sent it to me. Is this allowed? I’m getting kind of worried.
Oh okay. I think when you request a recommendation there’s a clause on Gateway that states the recommendation is confidential between the recommender and school. If they shared it with you, it’s probably fine.