Should You Have “Other Recommenders” for College Applications?

Today we’re talking about letters of recommendation for your college applications. Specifically, we’re talking about the other recommenders that some colleges are willing to look at. Most schools want to see letters from two teachers plus your guidance counselor. But then if you scroll down, some schools will offer the option for other recommenders outside of that school apparatus. And that could be a coach, or a boss. It could be a member of your clergy or an art teacher. Or, if they have another option, it really could be anything.

And some schools will give you a long list of options. Some schools will give you a short list of options. And some schools will give you no options because they’re not willing to consider this, so don’t send it to them. And your job is not to bombard a college with everything that they’re willing to look at, whether it’s one of these or three of these, or whatever the number is. Your job is to consider: is your application incomplete without this person’s perspective on you? Are they that important to your life? Is your experience with them that important to your application?

And if so, you want to reach out to them, make sure it’s okay with them, and then you want to click the button to add a recommender. You want to include their contact information, you want to let them know they’re going to receive an email, and then they’re going to log in and upload their letter of recommendation. And the good news is once you’ve done it for one school, that recommender will be an option for you to add for other schools. So you don’t need to manually add them with all their contact info every time.

So ask around, consider if this is right for you, and if you have questions, call us at 732-556-8220. We are here to help.