how much can a supplemental rec help?

chair2
Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:23:54 +0000

my teachers (which i’d have known for 1.5 years only by rec-writing time) are probably going to focus on my academic side along with what i offer in the classroom–in short, the emphasis won’t be on my character or personality, though they will be included.

my art teacher, on the other hand, i’ve known for years. i’m probably asking her for a supp rec to complement my portfolio and to sort of ‘validate’ my art skills, however, she’s probably going to have a bunch of little anecdotes of how i’ve grown as an artist, the risks i’ve taken, etc. assuming that it’s really strong, will this sort of compensate for the lack of personality/character description in teacher recs?

and… is a supplemental rec even that heavily weighted? from the site, it says:

“Additional letters can have the effect of cluttering an application file, often repeating what has been said elsewhere, and can leave a reader wondering which letters are the most important recommendations.”

does the last part imply that supplemental recs–despite from non-academic, outside-of-school areas–can be more ‘important’ than those of teachers?