<p>Is an outside letter of recommendation helpful at CMU?
Thanks</p>
<p>^An outside recommendation that illuminates something that the rest of your application does not, is useful. My son had two. He hadn’t taken a computer science course at his high school after freshman year, so one of his letters was from the head of the company he worked for several years. They were able to speak to the depth of his programming knowledge and also the fact that he could play well with others. (Something I not sure his teachers would have said.) He also had a letter from a medical school professor that he had done some programming work for, and who had cited that work in a number of papers. </p>
<p>Having read some people’s recommendations - I was on an admissions committee years ago - I can say a lot of people don’t know how to write a helpful one, though they don’t generally do any harm either.</p>
<p>Mathmom’s advice applies to everywhere you apply. Can also be significant if the person writing the letter has some particular “meaningful” connection to the school.</p>
<p>The rec should not be submitted using the common ap form (teachers only) – but to ensure it matches up to the file, ask your reviewer to place your common ap Id number on the letters being sent so it actually ends up in your file.</p>