Greetings!
I am not talking about a recommendation (I have 3 of those submitted already), but a letter of appreciation, which is a popular thing in my country. Specifically, I have a letter from my town’s municipality praising my leadership and efforts in the field of ecology. However, I am not sure if I should include it since it might be too similar to a recommendation. The “letter” is actually a simple A4 piece of paper with a title (“letter of appreciation”), some short text on it (thanking me for the stuff I mentioned), a signature by someone from the municipality and all the other official dates and stuff.
Ecology IS very important to me and it’s the subject of one of the essays on my application, so this could serve the function of a supplement that shows that it’s not just empty words, but I don’t want to include it if it would make me seem like I’m trying to include a thousand recommendations when it’s not allowed.
What do you guys think?
I think if you already have three recs you can’t include it. However, you can ask your guidance counselor at school to mention it in his or her rec. My daughter did that with a similar letter she received.
In your essay on the topic, you can just mention how honored you were to receive this letter of appreciation from your municipality, and you can even include a quote from it if you like. That’s how I would handle it. It does not seem appropriate to actually submit the letter in any way. It would be like a student submitting the actual award certificates they have received in their life, to prove that their list of awards on the application was “not just empty words.” You can also list it wherever “honors and awards” go on the application. Just call it a “leadership award” and describe it as “received letter of appreciation for leadership and efforts in the field of ecology.” If this was in recognition of volunteer work you did, it could alternatively (or also) go in the volunteering section of your application.
I agree with that - I would include it if the college accepts “additional materials” which is a place sometimes students would put their resume.
And double on the “get your guidance counselor to mention it”. If your school thinks it is important, that’s supporting the idea that it is important.
There are certainly similar things in the US, where perhaps an Eagle Scout does a project for a town or school, and the Mayor or Principal sends a letter of appreciation or makes a “proclamation” saying thank you.
Here is an example:
http://www.cherryhill-nj.com/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=875
Thank you for the advice! I will submit it under additional prizes and honors then. Since our school doesn’t have a “guidance counselor” the way US schools do (it’s basically whoever from the principle’s office draws the short stick to write student’s college letters’’) I’ll ask one of my teachers to mention it if possible.