Recommendation letters

[jababa123]

Hi,

I am wondering how many letters I can submit to grad schools, without pissing them off?

I know that 3 is the standard, but because of the situation I am in, it might be best for me to send 4. If I do send 3, I may not be able to send one from a very famous mathematician who taught me in two recent grad classes that I did well in. So that would be the cost of not sending a 4th letter.

Would that be accepted by programs, or would it be viewed negatively?

Thanks!

[young556646]

Hi,

I am wondering how many letters I can submit to grad schools, without pissing them off?

I know that 3 is the standard, but because of the situation I am in, it might be best for me to send 4. If I do send 3, I may not be able to send one from a very famous mathematician who taught me in two recent grad classes that I did well in. So that would be the cost of not sending a 4th letter.

Would that be accepted by programs, or would it be viewed negatively?

Thanks!

If you cannot send a letter from a very famous mathematician, your other three letters must be even better than that, then why do you even worry about that?

[jababa123]

Hi,

I am wondering how many letters I can submit to grad schools, without pissing them off?

I know that 3 is the standard, but because of the situation I am in, it might be best for me to send 4. If I do send 3, I may not be able to send one from a very famous mathematician who taught me in two recent grad classes that I did well in. So that would be the cost of not sending a 4th letter.

Would that be accepted by programs, or would it be viewed negatively?

Thanks!

If you cannot send a letter from a very famous mathematician, your other three letters must be even better than that, then why do you even worry about that?

The other three letter writers know me better, and I was in some degree involved in doing research with them.

[optimisticnihilist]

I think you can send 4 or even 5 in most cases, unless the department explicitly mentions that they want 3 and only 3 letters.

[fmcgla]

Hi,

I am wondering how many letters I can submit to grad schools, without pissing them off?

I know that 3 is the standard, but because of the situation I am in, it might be best for me to send 4. If I do send 3, I may not be able to send one from a very famous mathematician who taught me in two recent grad classes that I did well in. So that would be the cost of not sending a 4th letter.

Would that be accepted by programs, or would it be viewed negatively?

Thanks!

Unless this famous professor has worked with you personally then I would go with three tbh. If you have good research experience which the other three letters can talk about, then I think an extra letter could distract from this. I submitted 5 letters with one of my application and I think in hind sight it was a bad idea. You can always mention your time in this professors class in your sop, plus your transcript will speak for itself.