<p>I know there's such thing as a common application, so does one teacher's recommendation count for all of those colleges, if you're using a common app? What if you don't use a common app and are applying to 5 different colleges and have the same one or two teachers in mind to write your recs ? Is it ok to ask the same few teachers to write multiple recommendations, or is it impolite ? I'm thinking if this is the case, then maybe the student can say "well, since i'm requesting you write x number of recommendations, you can just re-copy what you write on one application to another.... (or some other explanation). Any ideas?</p>
<p>I asked my teacher the same questions when I applied, if it was ok that the recommendations were different. They all said that what took them a long time was writing the recommendation letter, filling out the short-answer questions on the rec forms were a breeze. </p>
<p>As long as you give the teachers plenty of time to write the recommendations, and as long as you are polite, they'll definitely be ok with it.</p>
<p>Even with the common app there is some "extra" info that needs to be mailed in and the teacher recs are one of those. If you use the commonapp for 5 schools, you need to print out 5 teacher recommendation forms (or 10 if you need two teachers recs for each school), fill out your part as directed in the instructions, and give them to the teachers along with a stamped envelope addressed to each school, so they can mail them in.
It is not rude to give them several but if they add an extra page of comments they may photocopy that.</p>