Hello, I’m an international student from Africa and I was thinking about getting an additional Lo from the house helper. She lives very close by and I interact well with her and I children. I feel she would really show a sense of how I am at home and other aspects. I however have three questions :
She cannot write well( if at all) in English (although she understands and speaks okay). She is more fluent in our local language. How would I go about getting a recommendation from her ?
2.Is it a good idea that I even get one from her ? Would the colleges look at it negatively?
I will be getting about 3 teacher Recs (for schools that permit) and am already getting an additional one from my music teacher. Would an extra one from the helper be too much ??
Please help.
You do not need 5 recs. Many schools don’t want that many and you may have to choose to send only 1 or 2. I’m not entirely sure how it works for international students, but for US students many schools ask for one from a teacher (preferably from a “core” class") and one from the Guidance Counselor. 5 is excessive and one from your house helper is unnecessary.
Agree with above. I think four recs are too many. They have tens of thousands of apps to get through. They are going to be annoyed if you send excessive stuff. Keep it minimal. Make an impact with your grades, test scores, essays and ECs.
That’s a HORRIBLE idea on many levels. First, because you attract attention to the fact you have a house servant. (Not seen as a positive in the US. Opens the possibility you’re a spoiled kid who can’t do his/her own laundry and is used to having others picking after himself/herself.) Second, because HOW IN THE WORLD can you imagine your house helper has nothing else to do than to spend time speaking about you for American colleges her own kids have no shot at - will you do her housework while she prepares what she will say? Will your parents give her three days off to do it? Third, this is a letter without value, because obviously you’d translate it for her, so you’d know what she’d write, and since you’re her boss’s kid, she is obligated to say nice things, or even fabricate them. It’s a horrible thing to do to her.
Honestly, it pushes the concept of “entitlement” to a new level and I can"t imagine any officer reacting positively to it.
In any case, having three letters is absolutely fine.
Alright thanks for the help! @MYOS1634 ohhhh wouldn’t want to make it look like that. Although that’s not the case. Having a house help here isn’t really a sign of privilege. It’s very common. But I guess if that’s what it would look like I wouldn’t include it. And if it looked like that to you it would probably look like that to the adcoms? Thanks for your help.
I know that in many parts of the world, having a house helper is very common. But asking a person in your employ to use some of their valuable time to write a letter you or her employer will review is really not a good idea, as it implies you don’t see her time as valuable and you don’t understand how the power relationship would negate whatever the value the letter may have.
Hehehe I feel cornered ! :(( @Dolemite I’ve gotten the response I needed. It’s a bad idea. I won’t defend myself. I won’t turn this into an argument about privilege. I do however get your point.Thank you.
@CrimsonZa , never mind the privilege stuff. We didn’t manage to convince you by pointing out that you would have to tell your house help what to write, or that more doesn’t mean better?
The whole point of a rec is for adcoms to get an idea of the person behind the stats. Find two teachers who know you very well, who like you, who you also like, and whose classes you worked hard in, even if you didn’t get an A. Ideally, the teacher recs should be from different core subjects, such as math and history. You say you have three teachers lined up? Personally, I don’t think there is a college that asks for three teacher recs. Unless all three teachers are going to say amazing (and specific) things about you, stick to two, and keep the music rec as an adiitional one for colleges that allow a supplemental rec. Or ditch the music rec, and keep the third teacher rec if it is going to be excellent. As skieurope said, the thicker the file…
@Lindagaf I also got that point. I guess you are right. It would end up with me telling her what to write and that’s not the point of the rec. so I guess I’ll just ditch that one. About the three teachers I just thought If they allow it, why not?! :)) i was going to get from my math teacher , chem teacher and civic Ed teacher who all know me differently. I thought the music teacher would show the none academic side of me. That’s why I was considering all the four for schools that allow it.
The thing about recs is that you, the student, are not allowed to see them. (At least you aren’t supposed to see them, not sure how they are submitted from internationals, though.) So teacher A writes a great rec, teacher B writes a good rec. Teacher C writes a generic rec and isn’t as good writer and ends up ruining the previous two recs because he/she inadvertently gives a back-handed compliment, such as “Johnny tries really hard and gets good grades, despite the fact that other students seem to struggle far less than he does.” Oops. And music teacher hasn’t got a clue, because he/she quite likely has never written a college rec for an American university. Meanwhile, your teachers/music teacher all send their recs merrily on their way to Harvard. You might end up with two dud recs that will not help you. I seriously would consider only asking teachers who have written these kind of recs before. Less is more, my friend.
They are familiar with what is expected as they have read several threads and articles on the same and even seen some samples . I won’t be seeing the recommendations though. So I can only hope
There’s one situation where several letters could be uploaded. Imagine you have letters from a math, science, and social science teachers.
One college let’s you apply undecided - you send math and social science. One college requires you apply to a specific major and you chose chemistry : you send the science and math recommendations.
The common app system allows you to choose which teacher’s letter you send to which college, specifically for these cases.