My D collected all of the hard copy, signed seal LORs and sent them in packets to whichever schools asked for hard copies.
And, yes, thank you notes were not only appreciated, but, in our opinion, necessary. People spend a lot of time on these.
Reading these comments have really answered my questions about common app recommendations. However I still have one that i cant find the answer to. When a teacher writes you a recommendation, is that recommendation good to send to several schools or just for one at a time? in other words, would my teachers have to write out 5+ recommendations?
They can write one for multiple schools; there is no need to personally address it to different schools.
I am doing letters for 12 kids this year, and I write one generic “to whom it may concern” heading for each kid. The common app is the easy part- upload and done. What’s tricky is to remember who needs something on our school letterhead, or on a form for a particular school etc. one I did last week asked to have the kid’s birthdate in the opening sentence! (Bizarre) That is where I need help for the kid, reminding me who needs what. You will find most teachers are happy to help kids they like- but have little time for managing the details. Also, don’t pester. I tell kids that I will email them when letter is done.
I received an amazing personal rec letter addressed to my early app school - which states their name 4 times. The recommender did not realize it would automatically upload to all other schools on my common app for reg decision! Now What ?? If Harvard gets a letter with Stanford mentioned do they read past that and look at the letter as a whole rather than hold it against me?
There should be a way to pull the letter from all schools to specific schools- ho see your GC- they can probably fix it 