“May I submit additional letters of recommendation?
In our experience, the required counselor recommendation and two teacher recommendations provide all we need to make a thoughtful, informed admission decision. However, if someone has unique knowledge of certain strengths or accomplishments that would not be addressed in the required recommendations, you are welcome to have another person write on your behalf.“
They are politely discouraging you from submitting a letter from someone that doesn’t provide “unique knowledge of certain strengths or accomplishments that would not be addressed in the required recommendations”, in my opinion and experience.
Good luck to your kid. FYI I noted my kid did submit so not dissuading from doing so.
I’ve seen the text you cite and parsed it to within an inch of its life . I agree with your conclusion—only submit a letter if it adds a new dimension (and definitely don’t just submit a third classroom teacher rec).
But I’ve seen so many people on CC say that AOs don’t want any more than what’s required; just in this thread, someone said Brown AOs “don’t want additional but would accept.” I took that kind of advice to heart in guiding my kid (who was rejected from Brown ED, to clarify), and I think it was a mistake.
OP has a third person who seems to fit exactly what Brown wants in the optional rec, so I’m simply putting my voice in to encourage her to pursue it and not overthink submitting it.
Sorry, I think we fully agree. That was my impersonal and perhaps poorly worded version of contextual alignment😀.
For what it’s worth I wouldn’t beat yourself up for not submitting the 3rd letter. My kids had some second thoughts around various things as they applied but in the end it all works out and seemingly makes sense. I appreciate what I stressful time it is and hope you get to enjoy senior year in spite of the distraction of applications.
Not sure if you submitted two or three - but I can’t imagine an additional LOR would be the difference between an accept or not - at least not in 99% of the cases.
But I have changed my perspective from erring on the side of not submitting an optional rec to pursuing and submitting that optional rec if possible (assuming it meets the criteria the school establishes). That’s my point. Don’t live in fear of annoying AO with too much info. If they say they’ll accept something optional, and you have something that meets the criteria, do it. Don’t go overboard, and don’t send random updates. But don’t miss (sanctioned) opportunities to strengthen your application.
My two cents is I have started just to try to chill out about optional stuff they describe as fully optional. Do it if you like, don’t do it if not, the more I read from actual AOs, they just are not thinking in the terms anxious parents and kids are sometimes thinking. If it is not a required or at least recommended element, they do not secretly see you as lazy or disinterested if it is not submitted, nor do they find it annoying if you do–within reason. Like, one more recommendation, fine. 20 more, not so fine.
So, like, my S24 applying to Vassar did in fact add his “second” teacher recommendation because he is really into both areas academically and the teachers in question saw different sides of him intellectually. Indeed, he does not have a first or second, they are both important to him equally. And of course he has no idea which is “better”.
But it is also totally fine in my view to do just the one.
I wouldn’t worry about annoying the admissions office really. My guess is that if they are annoyed, they may not read the letter, but they won’t count it as a black mark against the student. However, I also don’t think the extra letters are likely to be as helpful as some students think. I believe that I read somewhere that most admissions readers spend at best 8 or so minutes per application. It is not a lot of time to read anything in depth. I think that I’d rather the AO has the time to really read and digest the required materials including the essays that my kid sweated over, polished, and refined than provide extra documents, which might make it even harder to fully consider the required elements. However some of my bias is that my kid is coming from a high school where I know the school counselor and teacher letters are likely to be relatively long and comprehensive. D24’s school does not even fill in the rating bubbles; they just write narrative. If my kid is coming from a school where the regular academic teacher letters are likely to be more cursory with little to read and digest, I would want that third optional letter from someone who knows my kid well because it would probably paint a more vivid picture than the ones from the school.
I want the admissions office to feel like they know my kid and what makes her interesting. So I could see adding a third letter (one of my kids submitted a portfolio with a relevant letter from an extracurricular activity. The letter writer gave context the portfolio’s contents). However, I would definitely steer clear of random letters from people who are famous but only know my kid through me --I dunno like the senators, judges, deans, or professors whose support supposedly show my kid’s strength but really just show that my family is well connected.
Random aside, but it would be great to know how INTERESTING your LORs were. Barring unusual circumstances, the content should be positive, but is it actually a fun letter to read? If so, probably the reader would be fine spending an extra minute or two on an optional LOR. If not–probably no punishment, but maybe not much of a read.
. I agree with your conclusion—only submit a letter if it adds a new dimension (and definitely don’t just submit a third classroom teacher rec).