My dream school is Cornell, but my GPA is low (3.55 uw, 3.72 w, but increasing with weighted classes). Would a LOR from the vice principal of my school with 3500 students help me?
This is from Cornell’s admissions website:
"Teacher Evaluations
Applicants to Cornell are required to submit two teacher recommendations. Please be sure to remind individuals writing letters for you to include your name and date of birth on all pages if they are sending them by mail. You are encouraged to limit your letters of recommendation to the two that are required."
Note the last line! Remember that the admissions folks are reading thousands and thousands of applications. You don’t want to be making their job harder by including excess materials.
Unless your vice principal teaches one of your class, follow Cornell’s suggestion, a letter from two of your teachers. ( and another one from your guidance counselor).
To help your teachers, you can prepare a “brag sheet” containing your goal, strengths interest, , accomplishments, awards, etc. My D teachers spent time talking to my D about this before they wrote her the recommendation letters. I thought it was wonderful thing those teachers did for their students.
Choose your teachers who can write very well and approach them by the end of your junior year or first thing in your senior year.
Here’s the thing: it’s YOUR qualifications that matter, not that of the person writing your letter.
And I strongly suspect that the VP of your school knows that.
@msv123, daughter was deferred ED. Her VP wrote a stellar letter of recommendation for her during the RD phase. This was on top of the 2 she had previously sent. 3.73 gpa, 31 ACT. Accepted. Good luck.
@kidodie wow! Is the 3.73 weighted or unweighted? Congrats to your D.
@msv123, thank you. That was her weighted GPA. She is going to ILR and when she called their admissions office to thank them for the opportunity, they told her it that they all felt she was a perfect fit for the program.
@kidodie how did she demonstrate fit?
@msv123, she showed how her senior year courses were ILR related. How her EC’s were ILR related. Her senior year externship, ILR related. In her LOCI after she was deferred, she spoke about ILR related issues in the headlines she was following. Finally she made connections with as many people in admissions as possible. When they visited her school, when she visited the campus, etc. After she was accepted she was told that when her file came up for discussion, everyone in the room had had some form of contact with her. All in a very positive way.