Hi guys, I just have a quick question I’d love to get help answering.
I’m waiting to hear back from a school I like very much, but I want to prepare other applications should I get denied. Since my school asks us to request recommendation letters way in advance, I was wondering if I could request them for 10-15 schools, and then spend the next few weeks narrowing that list down even more until I ultimately apply to around 5 of those schools. This would leave some schools with recommendation letters, possible SAT score reports, and transcripts. Is there anything wrong with this? Would I then email each school I’m not applying to and withdraw my application? Any downside to this?
Don’t you simply need one copy of the rec letter (which you sent to your ED or EA school) to upload to your Common or Coalition app? You simply send to the target schools at your convenience. The transcripts are a different matter.
A school isn’t going to do much until they get your completed application (and fee if required). They might send you reminders that you haven’t completed your application, but it’s not a big deal. Once you’ve actually completed an application, it is polite to notify a school once you’ve made a decision to attend elsewhere.
It’s very common for students to do things like send free SAT score reports to schools where they eventually decide not to apply
@T26E4 Naviance makes it a bit more challenging because you have to request recommendations for specific colleges at that time and it automatically sends it to all those colleges when the teachers submit. If you want the recommendations for another college, you have to send another request and the teachers will have to redo the whole process. I want to save them that headache.
That’s a completely different question than the original, which was focused on the colleges rather than the recommending teachers.
Does your school’s Naviance implementation require teachers to write customized recommendations for each school? Or is it a generic letter that is sent to every school? The answer to that determines whether or not this is a headache for teachers.
I know for my kids, the teachers uploaded the letters and they were sent when students specified they were applying - there was no extra effort on the teacher’s behalf regardless of the number of applications sent.