Send in a third recommendation from an employer?

Transfer Students
1

I’m applying to transfer to a few Ivies and some other top 30 schools and I’m worried about the quality and the presentation of my extracurriculars.

My main activity was an intern at a local social enterprise (kinda like a non-profit although not quite). I put in quite a bit of time every week and did many things for the organization. It’s also related to my intended major. Since the rest of my ECs are pretty mediocre, I really want to highlight this experience, so I asked my academic advisor to mention it in her letter (although she can’t go into too much details), and I got a recommendation letter from my employer, the founder of that organization. I have a very good relationship with him and I’m pretty confident about the quality of his letter.

However, the problem is, most colleges don’t require or even mention supplemental recommendation letters for transfer students, and there are only slots for “academic” recommenders in Common App. I emailed two colleges that mentioned that they accept supplemental recommendation letters, and they told me to have my employer send it through email. For the other colleges that don’t mention they accept additional recommendations, should I email them and ask? Should I ask my employer to send it anyways?

I’d also appreciate any other advice on how to highlight this activity.Thanks!

2

While it’s hard to know for sure, the worst they can do is just toss it in the trash.

3

Is it a good idea to send in four letters? I already have two good letters from professors and one from my advisor, which is mostly on the non academic things. I’m only sending in one from either my advisor or my employer, since I thought having two letters on ECs is too much, considering most schools don’t require anything other than “academic” evaluations. But is this a legitimate concern?