Can you remind me again of how teacher recommendations work on the Common App?

Having gotten 1 kid into college, you’d think that I’d remember this for the 2nd kid.

Here’s where we are:

  1. Son asked two teachers. They both said yes.
  2. Son has applied to 5 colleges and listed the 2 teachers in the recommender field.

So now what happens? Do those colleges send an email to each teacher and say, “okay, send them now”? I’m thinking that neither teacher has written it yet…I might be wrong…but my kid goes to an urban public school and the teachers are swamped.

Another question: Does the school hold off reading the application until both recommendations are in place?

My question is similar. If you have 5 school will the teacher receive 5 emails to attach to each email. That seems pretty bothersome. Especially if the teacher completes them for more than 1 student. Or will they only get 1 email and that will be attached within common app for the schools to receive.

if using commonapp, the applicant puts the teacher’s name in and 'assign’s them to the specific college (may not send same recs to all colleges). After you ‘assign’, the teacher will be notified, they’ll probably already have an account and will go in and do the rec (or wait a few months). once they submit the rec, applicant can see a little check-mark next to them noting that the rec is done. teacher does the rec once, and you can add more schools and the new schools will receive that same rec. Teacher won’t receive a second note if you add a school.

note you can also track the counselor items that are needed (like transcripts, etc), but the ‘assigning’ happens in a separate place in the commonapp, probably the main section.

Thanks @iz57c4 – and then i’m guessing that it varies by college whether they’ll read the application before the recommendations arrive…

they don’t download anything until the app is submitted. it’s just ‘ready’. once app is submitted, then you can monitor the college status and see what all has been downloaded and when.

If I choose to un-assign a teacher, will they get a notification? I want to get rid of a letter that I know is not that well written, at least for my dream school.