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I'm in as well! Any international students beside me?

Hello guys, so here's my question about the notorious GRE: if a graduate program doesn't require it, do you think it's still a good idea to take it? Could it be helpful in order to be in a better position when the commission will evaluate you, especially when it comes to decide who gets a scholarship? I asked such a general question for the sake of common help, but of course I have my specific case in mind: I'm thinking about a Dartmouth MA in Comparative Literature, and sending the GRE is optional in this case. Anyway, I'll have to take it because I'll also send my application to other programs. Consider that I'm not an English native speaker, and I haven't done any math in years, so the GRE might not be a perk in my applications. Do you think I should send the scores also to this school? Will they appreciate the effort? And, most important of all, will it be an important factor in order to be considered for a scholarship?

Sorry for such a late reply, I didn't set the notification options properly. I'm sending my application to several Comp Lit programs, and I'd especially like to work on storytelling. I took part in a seminar and wrote a final paper about the same subject with this lecturer, so I thought it was an appropriate person to ask for a recommendation. The only doubt I had was about the academic rank of this person, who actually is a Senior Lecturer, but since you both said it is enough, I think I'll go with that. Thanks for your help!

Hi everyone, do you think that a letter of recommendation from a lecturer would be strong enough, or do you think it would be better to get it from at least an associate professor? I'm curious to hear your opinion about this.

Hi everyone! I'm an Italian MA graduate in Literature and I want to try my canches in the US academic world: my goal is to get accepted in some Comparative Literature PhD program, hopefully in conjuction with Film Studies. Right now I'm struggling with my recommendation letters: it's been a year since I finished my MA program, but luckly I kept in touch with two professors who seem kind of strong references to me: one is my MA thesis supervisor from my home university and the other is a Ivy league alumnus whom I studied with during an European exchange program I attended. Unfortunately, these are the only two professors who got to know me pretty well and who are willing to recommend me. My BA thesis supervisor was skeptical about the idea of reccomending me: this just because LoR are not that used for Italian PhD programs, and she thought that a letter of reccomendation could actually harm my application (!). I thought about asking it to other professors from my exchange program, but I fear my application would look weak by sending two reccomendation letters from my exchange program and only one from my Alma mater. So, I am now considering an alternative for the third letter: in the past few months I worked as an intern for an Italian daily newspaper with national distribution. During my time there, I developed a good work relationship with former managing editor, who is now editor-in-chief in a local newspaper. He has a strong academic background in Medieval and Contemporary History, but of course he only knows me as a journalist, not as a student. So, what's your opinion on this: should I stick with my former managing editor or should I try to catch up with some former professor (either from my exchange program or my own university)?