Hey, I apologize in advance if this has been done to death, but I couldn’t find much info with a search. About five of the schools I’m applying to say they recommend 2 evaluations, but they are not required. I feel like this is overkill in addition to LOR, but I don’t make the rules. Would I be crazy to not include evaluations? Another question, the people who did my LORs are all in China and with Chinese New Year will be impossible to reach for at least a month. If I have to do evaluations, can I have other people do it, like coworkers? I know that’s kind of lame, but I don’t have any other options! Thanks in advance.
I asked this question to many of the schools that I have applied to. All said don’t send the evals, just your LORs.
" If I have to do evaluations, can I have other people do it, like coworkers? "
If you mean have a coworker take an eval for you? I guess the answer depends on what they can articulate that you have done. Keep in mind the general adcom consensus is academic are preferable.
FYI I had 2 recommenders who wrote great letters for me..then found out 6 months later during application time that my top choice REQUIRED evals and didn’t accept LORs. To date I have only sent the evals to that school, while the other 20ish schools, have only received the LORs.
Sending evals can only help your application, especially if they recommend sending some. I highly doubt they would auto-reject you for not sending any, however. Also, I’m very sure that 2 high quality LORs are preferable to 2 average LORs and 2 mediocre evals.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much, but if you can find some one to send one for you, it might help your application.
On another related subject, I had a professor from the university I studied abroad at send an eval for me. Because the eval system is all done online, it was much more convenient than asking for an LOR. I think potentially this may become a helpful niche for the eval system in the future. Letters can be requested from a student’s home university, while a professor from a study abroad program can write an eval and not have to worry about international postage.