<p>I know it's only June and we have at least four months before admission
but many juniors might be considering asking teachers for rec letters now.
So let's post some questions and answers on this thread about rec letters.</p>
<p>Okay my question is:
When you submit more than two recommendation letters (when two is the number that is required), is there any disadvantage?
Will Ivy League schools dislike you if you send in three instead of two??</p>
<p>I dont know if It will hurt you, but they make not even read it.</p>
<p>Three instead of two will probably not hurt. Five instead of two probably will ("does not follow instructions").</p>
<p>If you use the Common App, will your teachers have to write different recs for each college, or can they write one each and duplicate it? What if I don't use the Common App?</p>
<p>photocopies are fine (says so on Common App)</p>
<p>I think my teachers are just going to print out the same rec for each school, but change the name of the school. It'd be awful if they mis-sent something. lol.</p>
<p>Can you imagine this? Teacher's rec:</p>
<p>"...and that's why I know that chillaxin truly belongs at Yale University."
Harvard adcom: "Great, so she doesn't need to go here anyways. Rejected!"</p>
<p>Personally, I'm sending in only the two they require and an optional rec if they allow that.</p>
<p>chillaxin: At a Stanford Information Session, an admissions officer there said that those were his favorite essays.</p>
<p>Are you guys really asking teachers already? I am out of school already, and I wasn't planning on asking until the first day of school, even if I am doing EA. Is that too much of a time crunch? I'm pretty sure I'll be close to the only one asking for them to be done by October (ubercrappy school), but still, any opinions?</p>
<p>well some teachers want to think about it over summer while they can still remember who we are and what we did... also it would be better to know which teachers have agreed to write you a letter before you get to filling out apps.</p>
<p>Points well taken, soMuch2Do, but I have to digress a little. When you arre talking about an AP teacher, I would recommend waiting until you see your AP scores. If the teacher writes your rec, and assuming the school requests AP scores, and you got a 2 or 3, it would greatly undermine a teacher who is writing "this is one of the best students in my career" type evaluations. At least that is a reason I am waiting.</p>
<p>I wasn't planning on asking for them until fall either, but other kids in my class asked so I figured why wait?...at the very least your teacher will have a draft waiting that can be revised in the fall before it's sent off.</p>
<p>You people are crazy</p>
<p>Well, for me, the two teachers I'm planning to use have already written me recs for summer programs, so I'll probably just remind the one who I didn't explicitly ask earlier in the year. I'm definitely going to their classes on the first day of school and asking then though, especially since our class has almost 700 kids, and at least one of the teachers I'm asking has a certain quota for how many letters she's going to write.</p>
<p>chillaxin: At a Stanford Information Session, an admissions officer there said that those were his favorite essays.</p>
<p>His favourite to reject?</p>
<p>Ray192: Yes, and they were the most entertaining ones.</p>
<p>Chillaxin: Yeah, that's exactly what my teacher does. I've attended summer programs since freshman year so at least three of my teachers already have summer program recommendations...but they said they were going to tweak it to make it "more personal" come college applications.</p>
<p>One of my teachers doesn't even care much about the "privacy" of recs though. He lets me read the letters before he sends it off for a "preview"...lol.</p>
<p>Does anyone know which Ivy League schools do not accept additional recommendation?</p>
<p>Related question....D had two teachers this (jr.) year from whom she would like recs. Each is an outstanding, experienced teacher, writes well, teaches an advanced course and loved having her in class. The problem? They are husband and wife. Will it look weird to have two recs with the same (unusual) last name? Should she include a third rec just so it won't look weird? Would an adcom even notice?</p>
<p>soMuch2Do: My counselor and I talked about that, and he said that it's best not to send additional recs unless they specifically give you a form for the optional rec (e.g. Stanford).</p>
<p>how many letters can I ask the same teachers to do? even using the common app. is it too much to ask teachers to send out 4 or 5 letters?</p>