Letters of Recommendation

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi everyone. I just had a question regarding rec letters that may not seem very clear:
Because I only have a rough sketch of a list of schools I want to apply to, can I just get four or five teachers to write a rec letter for me and then choose which ones I can send to schools? Or will they have to submit the letters themselves and I'll end up having to send 4 or 5 rec letters to all of my schools (which is, as I've heard, way too many..)? How does the whole Rec letter system even work?</p>

<p>Basically, since I don't know the specific requirements (for example, how many rec letters or from which teaching department), can I just get a rec letter from each department so that I'll be covered for any requirement? Sorry about the length of this post, I'm a little tired right now and it's hard for me to efficiently convey what I'm asking..</p>

2

<p>Don’t overburden your teachers. Ask one from a sci/math and another from humanities. No one needs five. That’s it. The single rec letter gets uploaded or Xeroxed and sent to your target schools.</p>

3

<p>I would think it pretty dumb to ask for five. As far as I know, you can’t even see them unless you don’t waive your right to, which looks bad in addition. Put it more simply, when you go through the reccomendation process, you can choose to waive or not waive your right to see the papers. As I’ve hard, colleges always like it more when you don’t see your papers, as it lets your teachers be more honest about what their writing. In otherrr words… just get two and click on the big “yes” button on naviance.</p>