Hi,

I have 4 academic letters of recomandation and one professional, should I send all or just 2 academic?

Any opinions?

Thanks

It depends on how many references the school wants. I wouldn't recommend sending more than required. UK schools usually prioritise academic referees.
Hope this helps.

As above

Send all. Since you already have it. If it, however, entails moving one extra finger, let it go. Just send as many required.

What you must however be careful about is the two or three essential references required by the college. There might be a column on the application form where you need to fill your references names and contact details. Just make sure you choose your best academic ones and fill those. Ignore professional recos in the form as UK univs not interested,

Thank you for your opinions. Its just that Im from a mass university (Vienna) and Profs dont really know you and they just describe, how outstanding your A in this subject was and that only few students get an A ( and 50 % get an F in this subject)etc. They also just describe there impression from one oral exam. They are not able to write about personal habits, like leadership etc. So I thought because Im from such a mass university I will send more letters of recommendations and I will explain them why I send more than asked.

But maybe it will be a mistake?

same problem here. I have 3 letters of recommendation and they're all good... what should i do?

I'm not in the UK, but in the US the general rule is that you should use the recommendations from the individuals who know you the best. If I were reviewing an application and received a letter that said only "X did very well in this course - he got an A, which only y percent of people get," I would pay no attention at all to the letter, as it was obvious the referee knew close to nothing about the applicant. Obviously, if they request two or three academic references or whatnot, you should send academic references, but in many cases there are exceptions for people who have been out of school for a few years. In those cases, I would almost always send a good work reference over a form academic reference. Again, this probably helps more in the US context, but I would be surprised if the London schools were any different.

As for whether you should submit extra recommendations, it really depends on the school. If they ask for two, you can probably get away with sending a third letter, so long as you preface it with an explanation. But if the school makes it clear that they will not look at additional letters, I wouldn't do it. The admissions people have so much stuff to look through already, each unnecessary letter just takes up that much more time.

I reckon if the university asks for two letters, you can send a third letter at the most... but try to make something good out of this third letter. For example, if youre already sending two academic reference, why dont you ask for a professional reference to send as an additional letter sending always the same kind of letter (with your professors saying the same things about you) maybe wont add much to your application. Just so you know, thats what I did. I sent three letter to all universities I applied to and the third letter covered my professional background. It didnt work out at Nottingham, Edinburgh and LSE but it got in at UCL, KCL and Queen Mary.