How many recs most teachers typically agree to write for one student? If a student is going to apply for 10+ schools, how many teachers should s/he ask for recs? If there aren’t enough junior year teachers to write all the recs for some productive 
applicant, does it make sense to ask the senior year ones? (It’s common knowledge that such requests should be made as early as possible, but 12th grade teachers don’t know their current students yet; but, could they write recomendationd for those applications which are due by Jan. 1? If so, when typically they do it?)
student615–i was thinking of writing her a thank you letter to give to her when i give her the whole package. a lot of people are telling me to write a sample teacher rec written in third person just so that if she doesnt know what to say she can refer to that sample.
instead i wrote a thank you letter that also talks about myself and my interests–how i view myself. it was much more easier to do this than to write a sample because everything i wrote was pretty much informal.
but do you think that this is an ok replacement for the sample letter?
do you think that giving her everything on the first day would be bad?
I would think that if a teacher writes a rec letter for, say, UCLA, it shouldn’t be too hard to make a few changes, print it out again, and send it to Northwestern. Especially with the Common App for so many schools. They just make a photocopy.
In answer to
and
One teacher will write one recommendation for you, then make copies and that same recommendation will get sent to all 5, 8, 10, howevermany schools you need. College admissions offices have no expectation that the recommendation will be written only for that one school. Each teacher writes one recommendation and copies of that get sent everywhere necessary.
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so lets say that i have 2 schools using the common app teacher rec form
so do i print out two copies of the same form, have her fill it out and send it? or should i just print out one, have her fill it out, copy it, and then send it out?
another question
i went to hong kong and china recently and i saw a set of little chinese figurines–little bald shaolin kids reading books and studying. should i give this to my teacher when i give her my package? i really dont want her to think that i am giving her all this stuff just so she will write a better rec for me. are the figurines too much? should i just give her some small chocolate or candy?
thanks for your input!
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But what about filling the forms which might be different for different colleges (especially those not using Common Application)?
And I’m still interested about senior year teachers - do people typically ask them for recomendations? If so, when is the best time for that?
Also, how colleges look at recomendations from different teachers, depending on the difficulty of their subject? Would the recomendation from AP Calculus teacher “weigh” more than, say, from Chem honors or AP Statistics teachers?
(Yesterday, my D found out that one of the teachers whom she intended to ask for recs is already “full” - doesn’t accept any more recomendees - from the first day of school (everybody but my D had been smart enough to ask that teacher last spring)!. And another one - answered “maybe”. So, now she has a choice between asking some other teachers from her junior year - some of whom she didn’t have quite good “relationship” with last year; or - asking her current senior year teachers … but right now she feels silly about it, because they don’t know her yet, but later it might be too late. 
what would you suggest to her?)
when you all say “cover sheets” what exactly do you mean? just like the first page of the rec or whatever? or am i missing something?
I had a specific intention with each recommendation i ask for, and i explained it to each teacher. I think a resume is kind of silly bc the teacher should only be writing about experiences they’ve directly had with you.
Eg: I asked for one rec from a teacher for whom i had been a lab asst, student (x2 years) and worked with extensively in an extracurricular. I assumed she would focus on these things, but when i asked i told her that this was why i was asking her.
Does it raise red flags if the teacher isn’t in your proposed major area?
My daughter is interested in majoring in sciences but each and every one of her science teachers has left the school. In her most recent semester, they used a series of subs, finally settling on a long-term sub who isn’t even an accredited teacher. We <em>could</em> track down that sub and I’m sure she would write her a recommendation, but I think her Eng and AP foreign language lit teachers know her better. Would it raise a red flag to use teachers in Eng and lit instead of science? Should we write a letter explaining?
<a href=“http://counselsmith.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2007/08/31/who-should-i-ask-to-write-my-recommendations/[/url]”>http://counselsmith.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2007/08/31/who-should-i-ask-to-write-my-recommendations/</a>
I have a few questions, that I need answered very soon, I scanned through the thread and didn’t see it answered. When the school gets the recommendation, how does it know who I am? One of my RECs will come in before my application. By the way, this isn’t a teacher REC, so there is no form for it. Should my coach write my SSN and name on the top or what? Also, cover letters are just for the purpose to inform the writer about what they have to do or whatever, right? Or do I have to make a cover letter that the schools will recieve along with the letter?
driven and who persevere
what is a cover letter!?
Okay, this may be a stupid question… but do teachers usually mind if you send the Common App. form to them online?
Mine had already agreed to write me recommendations previously, and I was wondering if it would be a huge violation of etiquette to give them the forms electronically. Thanks.
To post #54 by Askmeo88 – It should be ok with most teachers. You can do this and then check in person to make sure it was received and there was no problem.
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<li>When you request a recommendation, give the teacher every possible opportunity to hint or say that he or she is not comfortable writing it. A bad recommendation will hurt more than any good one can help, so ask someone else if the teacher shows any hesitation or uncertainty about writing this letter.<br></li>
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Most teachers would prefer writing no letter to writing a bad letter, so offer a simple way out if the teacher is not very enthusiastic about doing this for you. For example, you might say, “I know that this is a busy semester for you, so I understand if you can’t do it”, or simply, “Please let me know if for any reason you don’t feel comfortable writing this letter”. Yet another way to assess enthusiasm is to ask whether the teacher would recommend that you apply to the schools you plan on applying to. If doubt is expressed (beyond the normal caution that the process is hard even for the best students) that is a superb signal that you do not want this recommendation.
(I got this advice, almost verbatim, to Susan Athey, an economics professor at Harvard whose [advice</a> on applying to economics graduate schools](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/~athey/gradadv.html"]advice”>http://www.stanford.edu/~athey/gradadv.html) is superb. This particular piece of advice is just as relevant to college admissions or even more so.)
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<li>Be very careful with gifts. Certainly, it is great to give a token of gratitude to someone who has helped you a great deal, but many teachers would feel uncomfortable with this and it can lead to some very awkward moments. While you are still a student at the school, a handwritten note on a nice card is best. For the teachers who have had a particularly profound effect on you, a gift after you graduate is much more appropriate because it will not raise any conflict of interest questions. Options include good chocolate, a nice bottle of wine (do this after you graduate so you don’t get expelled under a zero-tolerance policy), or a nicely framed picture that will be meaningful to your teacher.</li>
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When you’re applying to things in college (like jobs, graduate schools, and fellowships), the rules are a little different. Since many of your professors may become your colleagues or interact with you in some other way after you graduate (unlike most high school teachers), they are more touchy about gifts and it is safer not to give them to avoid the appearance of any impropriety. A nice thank you card will convey the same gratitude without any awkwardness.
quick question, I’m just a little confused.
SO with the common app, say you have 4 schools on it. You give the rec to your teacher, they fill it out, and then what? can they copy it and put it in the different envelopes for the schools?
i bought some chocolate for my teachers–should i give them it before or after?
Where do I find the common app cover page?
when i gave the teacher the recs, i just gave her a prepared envelope and the forms partially completed? what is the cover page? should i have included that also?