Minnesota

[Timshel]

This is for anyone who is planning on applying to Minnesota or has applied there in the past:

How many letters of recommendation are you submitting? Their site says you can submit a minimum of three but no more than 4. I originally planned on submitting 4, 3 that will speak to my ability as a student/scholar/researcher in my focus area, and the fourth our composition coordinator who can speak to my abilities as a composition instructor. (I took a composition pedagogy class when I was working on my Master's and I now teach introductory level English at the same university). However, I'm just curious if this is really going to be an asset or not. Plus, he's been very busy lately, and the deadline is December 1st, and I'm not sure how much time he is going to be able to commit to it, so I'm not sure if it would be better to just have the 3 strong letters or 3 strong letters and another one that will still be good, but perhaps not as strong as the others.

Thoughts? Any advice, even if you haven't/aren't applying to Minnesota...I'm just not sure which way to go.

[Timshel]

Okay, so I went ahead and had a heart-to-heart with my fourth LOR, and he told me that he would write me an awesome letter, so I feel much better about the whole thing. I guess I will submit all four.

[bdon19]

I don't want to take over this thread, since it's specifically about Minnesota, but I have a related question and didn't think I should start a whole new thread. I was going through Brown's application last night and noticed that you can have more than three recommenders--it gives you space to have up to 6. The English department page doesn't give any information about letters, so I'm supposing that it would be okay to include a fourth? Since Brown is quickly becoming my top choice, I've been trying to do everything in my power to strengthen my application there. I have a fourth letter writer in mind; he was close to being my third, in fact, but because he's in creative writing and has been super overwhelmed this term (he has a huge book deadline and is up for tenure, so he's been pretty stressed), I decided to ask someone else. The one I chose will be writing a great letter much more pertinent to my strengths, but the creative writing prof has known me for a really, really long time, knows both my academic and creative work, and I know would write an amazing letter. I feel like I'm answering my own question here--it does sound like I should probably just go ahead and ask him, yes? At least with this single letter I wouldn't feel guilty for eating up his time, especially considering Brown has one of the latest deadlines.

Does anyone have any experience with Brown's application in particular, or know anything about how they might perceive an extra LOR?

[Timshel]

Even though I labeled this Minnesota, I was more or less looking for guidance on the fourth letter. If I were you, I would contact Brown and ask if they allow more than 3 because the application goes for all departments and some may let you and some may not. A couple of my schools let you add up to 5, but when I emailed the departments specifically, they told me they would only read three. Minnesota is the only one that specifically said they would allow a fourth, which is why I am submitting it. I think you should double check with the English department specifically to make sure they will read all four and not just the first three they receive.

[lyonessrampant]

I submitted four for Minnesota, and while I don't exactly recall, I think I submitted four for Brown as well. Definitely email the department and ask, though. Good luck to you both!

[Origin=Goal]

I have four letters and will be submitting as many to nearly all programs. I've yet to see an app that says "no more than three" and I can't imagine four strong letters will at all harm my chances.

[Timshel]

A couple of my programs said no more than 3, and any that didn't explicitly state I contacted to ask and several of them told me that they would only read three, even though their website didn't say that. I would double check with the individual programs.