SLP: Which recommender would YOU choose?

[Basic_Space]

My personal essay discusses how my professional career has given me a great deal of experience, but I also have experience volunteering in an SLP office. My question is, would you choose to have a letter of recommendation from your boss or SLP supervisor? I'm leaning towards the SLP, only to diversify my application, but I also don't want the admissions committee to think "well, if you mentioned work in your SOP, why didn't you get a recommendation from your boss?" I'd love to include both, but I don't want to exceed the school's limitation to 3 essays (or is 4 recommendation letters even an option?)

[leesta]

I would say the SLP. The adcom aren't looking for work experience in of itself, they want to know what you got out of it. If the boss is the person who would know that best, then get it from them... but most likely it's the SLP who you have interacted with the most and learned the most from.

[Basic_Space]

I can honestly say my work experience is what I learned from most, but I am still leaning towards an SLP recommendation only to diversify my application--is that a bad idea?

[leesta]

Ah sorry for some reason I misinterpreted your post. Go ahead and take the recommendation from your boss Even if you don't get a recc from volunteer, you'll have it listed somewhere on your application. Your strengths doesn't necessarily have to be directly SLP-related - most applicants don't have that anyway. Play to your strengths and tell your boss what you feel you've learned that could help as a future SLP, and maybe they'll consider that when they write your recommendation. Good luck!

[amberwaves]

Unless the schools you're applying to specifically say, do not send us more than 3 LORs, it's probably fine to send 4. I sent 4 to all of my schools. Good luck!

[Basic_Space]

Unless the schools you're applying to specifically say, do not send us more than 3 LORs, it's probably fine to send 4. I sent 4 to all of my schools. Good luck!

My only concern with this, is that only the first three will be read, which would be a disaster. Were you not worried about that? Am I overthinking it?

[gracie114]

I would not exceed the number of recommenders. Schools are deluged with applications and don't have extra time to devote to reading an additional recommendation letter. I sent two or three to the schools I applied to (depending on their stipulations), because I didn't want to potentially give off the vibe that I thought I was more important than other applicants or that I didn't think the rules applied to me.

I think you should go with whoever knows you best. If worked has shaped your experience enough to be mentioned in your statement of purpose, then I say go for that. When I mentioned a professor in my statement who wrote me a LOR, I said something like (please see letter of recommendation) so the adcomm could tie what I was saying in my statement together with what my prof had to say about me.

And In regards to the statement "Am I overthinking it?", that statement was basically the story of my life during the application season!

[NorcalSLP]

My only concern with this, is that only the first three will be read, which would be a disaster. Were you not worried about that? Am I overthinking it?

I think you answered your question (not that overthinking it one. Like the above poster, we all overthink this whole process). You say that if only the first three are read it will be "a disaster". Submit the "fourth" (the one you are worried would not be read) and not the other one. Does that make sense?

[Basic_Space]

Thank you all for the replies. Perhaps we should create a thread called "Am I overthinking it" under SLP forums, hehe