I requested 3 LOR and 2 were in when I submitted a few applications. After that the 3rd came in and my guidance counselor said it was excellent and I should make it one of my top 2 to send to colleges (I did not see any of the LOR). Can I add it to submitted applications as a 3rd LOR or an “Other recommender” bc it’s from a teacher/coach who discusses me outside the classroom per my guidance counselor.
I’d certainly try. How to do it administratively might depend on the colleges to which you have already submitted. The basic issue is you are not supposed to be directly handling recommendations, but my understanding is you can still Invite and Assign recommenders after you submit an application in the Common App system. Alternatively, recommenders can sometimes email their recommendations directly to a college, making sure they include all your identifying information so the college can put it in your file.
A college may actually discuss this scenario on their admissions website, in which case you can just do what they say. But if not, I think this is the sort of thing where a polite, and brief, email or phone call to Admissions is warranted.
And worst case scenario, you don’t get a response, so you try one of these routes and it doesn’t work. But they are very unlikely to actually punish you for trying.
If a college only takes 2 LOR, I can’t switch one out right? I can only add it as an “other recommender” if that’s an option?
Yes use going forward. Add if can via common lr if there’s another way it doesn’t require manual intervention - like asking someone.
It may be great but so might the first two.
I wouldn’t rock the boat.
The impact to your app is likely minimal, if any.
That’s right, colleges can sometimes be strict about this, and in the end you may just have to abide by their policies at those colleges, if you already submitted of course. And personally, if they were clear in their application instructions about only accepting two recommendations, I would not try to persuade them to pull one of the existing ones and replace it with this one.
So I would only be trying to add this recommendation to previously submitted applications if they were open to three recommendations to begin with.
But OP can also use this letter for any future apps that want one.
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