<p>One of my friends told me that you need to give your teachers one of those big yellow (manilla is that what they're called?) envelopes to send your letters of recommendation in because colleges don't want any folded papers. Is this correct? I've seen other students already giving their envelopes to their teachers and they were just regular white envelopes. Also, is it okay to have your letters arrive at the schools you're applying to before you even apply? One of my teachers is really adamant about having lots of time to do his reccs and is probably going to send them in as soon as he's done, which is before my application is going to be there. Colleges won't like... throw them away will they?</p>
<p>Business size envelopes are fine. Colleges don't care if the paper is folded.</p>
<p>Yes, it's OK to have your recommendations show up before your application.</p>
<p>You may want to put a self-addressed stamped postcard, with the college's name and the teacher's name on the other side, into the envelope that your teacher will use for the recommendation. The college will usually stamp the postcard as Received and mail it back to you. Then you have proof that they received the recommendation, just in case it's misplaced later and you have to have the teacher resend it.</p>
<p>Another important tip: get peel-and-stick envelopes. No teacher wants to sit there and lick 200 envelopes for all their recs.</p>
<p>At my kids' HS, the college counselor offered the kids the option of giving an envelope to each teacher for each rec OR having all the teachers turn in all recs to him & he would send out a big packet with his rec, the transcript & HS profile with the teachers recs. Many kids chose the latter option, which saved worrying about the logistics as to whether each school received each piece of paper. It also saved the worry about whether the letters were actually sent, as the college counselor could "jog" the memory of any late teachers so the packets could be sent off in time. Ask at your school if this is an option (if it appeals to you). S gave pre-addressed manilla envelopes for each U with 3 1st class stamps affixed. For S, this worked beautifully & we did NOT get any notices of any missing recs, transcripts or school profiles :)
My S did his apps on-line, or he could have included his written app in the packet as well.</p>
<p>Make sure you read the instructions on the rec forms. Most schools don't care if you fold the paper, but I noticed that all of my forms for Columbia said "Do not fold." I gave the teachers larger envelopes just for that school.</p>
<p>Last night I found out that Columbia and Stanford say not to fold any papers. They probably get scanned into a computer and the creases would interefe with reading what's written. Or they just get sick of handling creased papers.</p>
<p>In any case, I've since decided to use 9 x 12 envelopes for all my recs, just in case.</p>