The Thicker the File, the Less Competitive the Applicant
Admit It! You have thought about sending a third letter of recommendation when an application asks for only two. You’ve contemplated creating a fancy-schmancy resume to upload even though you were able to articulate all of your extracurricular activities and honors in the actual application. You’ve probably thought to yourself, really, what admission officer doesn’t want to read the extra creative writing piece I plan to submit?
I always tell applicants that they can tell us too little but never too much. And I’ll Admit It!, that may be overstating things. The application is a forum for you to demonstrate who you are and what you can contribute to a college campus. Most applications provide you various outlets in which to showcase your strengths and highlight your uniqueness (essays, interviews, recommendations, art submissions, etc.). But CAUTION (complete with flashing red light and deafening warning sound): do not go overboard. Do not send six letters of recommendation when the application requires only one or two. Do not send a copy of every award/certificate/merit badge you’ve ever earned since Cub Scouts when noting your growth in that program in the extracurricular section will do (we promise that your Math Student of the Month Award from ninth grade will have no bearing on what admission decision you receive). Do not write and submit a third essay when the application has only two prompts. So maybe I should restructure my advice. Applicants can tell us too little but never too much; but they should not tell us the unnecessary.
Overly thick files oftentimes make admission deans leery. What critical weakness are you trying to overcompensate for or bury deep within 50 pages of paper? Admission offices have thought long and hard about what information they require to make a thoughtful admission decision. Oftentimes they will provide optional opportunities in addition to the required application components. Utilize those opportunities but don’t take advantage of them.
Share with us what is substantive. Share with us that which makes you unique. Share with us why we want you to join our community. Share, share, share. But do so within reason. We know you want the thick envelope to arrive in April. We promise you don’t have to have a thick application file to receive one.
Wendy Livingston ’03, M.Ed. ‘09
Senior Assistant Dean of Admission
Comments are closed on posts older than one year, but we still want to hear from you. If you have a comment or question for us, please email admission@wm.edu.
This eases a lot of worries about what I have to include in my application. But I am perplexed about something else, the Common App allows for 3 recommendations to be attached. Would the College prefer to have only 1 or 2?
Dan, the only letter of recommendation we require is the one from your guidance counselor that is part of the Common Application’s Secondary School Report form. We do recommend one additional recommendation from a teacher. We do ask students to limit themselves to no more than three letters total (including the one from the counselor).
Remember, the Common App is used by over 400 schools so other schools might required 3 recommendations but W&M does not.
I have three amazing teachers, all from different subject areas, that I really want to write recommendations. Is it greatly frowned upon to have more than 2 teacher recommendations? Or is that rule/recommendation to keep people from being excessive?
You really should stick to two teacher recommendations and a recommendation from your counselor. While we appreciate the desire to put your best fit forward, we need to review nearly 13,000 applications in three months (and we read each one twice). If everyone submitted three teacher recommendations it would be more difficult for us to send you a timely decision.
You can still have all three teachers write letters and if there are schools you’re applying to that accept three teacher letters you can send all three to those schools. Just pick two to send to W&M.