All of my applications are due on January 15, and four of them allow recommendations from people outside of school, so I asked the manager of the place I volunteer to write me a recommendation. I asked her months ago, and at the time, I was unaware of the email invitations on the common app so I gave her envelops and told her to type one generic letter and send it to each of the colleges. I stupidly did not provide her with the offline forms that the common app has other recommenders fill out, I just told her to write me a letter of recommendation. I assume that in her letter she provided all the information that she would in the specific offline forms from the common app, but now I’m worried that the colleges will not accept the recommendations or it will affect my admissions decision because I did not follow the directions. Did anyone else do this?
If she hasn’t yet sent her recommendation to the colleges you’re applying to, ask her if she would mind completeing the Common App version. If she has sent it, it will have absolutely no negative impact on your application as it is meant to be an extra recommendation letter. In fact, the recommendation letter will likely be treated just as any other additional recommendation letter would be; trivial formatting and application issues such as this will not diminish either the letter or your application’s value.