<p>ahhhh i'm sort of freaking out. i'm OCD about everything and was going to make folders for each of my recommenders with all the forms, stamped/addressed envelopes, deadlines, my resume, a cover letter stating what i hope they emphasize, etc.
but i just found out today from my guidance counselor that our school policy is that none of the teachers fill out the teacher recommendation forms; they just write a letter and the GC office just sends the letters with the transcript/etc....
is that even possible or accepted? i know some schools i have don't use the common app and have specific forms they want teachers to fill out.... like georgetown's for example. what am i supposed to do? will the college just accept the letter?
HELP. i'm applying early action and need this all figured out!
thank you !</p>
<p>Whatever your school’s system is, will be OK. Don’t stress about this.</p>
<p>Colleges and universities have their own forms sometimes because they want to make life easier for recommenders who don’t know what to say, and/or because there is some particular question that they care about. Print out the forms and give them to your recommenders and the counselor so that they can be certain that these points are covered in their letters. IF you only have one (ok, maybe two) colleges/universities that have specialized forms, and IF you get the paperwork to everyone early, and IF you are truly very sweet about it when you ask, MAYBE your recommenders and counselors will use that official form for that specific place. But don’t bet on it.</p>
<p>All colleges and scholarship programs that I’ve seen have been happy to accept teacher letters instead of the fill in the blank application forms. In fact, the letters usually provide ore useful information. Saying this as someone who has served on scholarship committees.</p>
<p>Teacher RECs pretty much just help you and never hurt you. Anything special or unique your teacher can say about you will probably help. Honestly, I don’t think colleges care at all about the check boxes, since it depends on how strict the teacher doing them is.</p>