<p>When applying to many schools, for the personal, or "extracurricular" rec, do most people just give every single different form to the person you are having rec you? Because I think that since all of the forms are slightly different, it would be a little unreasonable to ask one person to fill out 10 different forms for me... How do most people do this? As far as I know, although most of the schools have a common math and english rec form, for the personal one, all the schools are different. UGH. Help. What do I do? I don't want to overload the person, yet there is no common form...</p>
<p>BUMP. 10 char.</p>
<p>You give them a pound of chocolate with all those recs…</p>
<p>This was an issue for our son too. Eventually, he apologetically asked one coach to write 3 recommendations and another to write one. </p>
<p>Check over the reference forms though. Often, they’ll say that it’s okay to attach a typed recommendation on the back as long as the person doing the reference fills out the checkbox section and sign the form. That didn’t work for us because both coaches were Luddites who don’t own pc’s, but that would really streamline things.</p>
<p>Yes, each ‘common form’ as published by the schools that participate is slightly different. It doesn’t matter: choose what you look most and have the person send copies to all the schools that need it. The schools that participate will not hold it against your application, that you didn’t specifically use their form. They really are trying to make the process easier.</p>
<p>Alex: Did you do this with the extra-curricular recs as well as English and Math? We didn’t…in fact, we used the TAB recommendation forms for English and math. That’s why I recommended attaching a typed letter to the school’s actual form. I was concerned that a school would think that we favored the school whose original we used. Curious to know what your experience was though…</p>
<p>Yes, we used a particular school’s for all the forms: Eng., Math, coaches, personal recs. All the AO’s assured us that it didn’t matter which school’s ‘common’ forms we used. All the people writing recs did offer to do it multiple times, but we told them it wasn’t necessary. Our child got accepted by most schools we applied to.</p>
<p>We did consider that the ‘other’ schools would know we were applying to that particular school. But it didn’t matter; we already told each AO the other places that we were considering. They all asked, and we answered honestly.</p>
<p>Interesting…wish I had heard that last year! It wasn’t so much the schools knowing which other schools our son was applying to; as you say, they all know that. It was the implied favorite (i.e. the chosen form) that worried me. For example, would you send Exeter’s form to Andover? And some of the forms were quite different. But that definitely would have saved that poor coach a lot of work! Oh well.</p>
<p>All the schools my son applied to accepted the 3 recommendation forms here [Application</a> Form - The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS)](<a href=“http://www.boardingschools.com/how-to-apply/application.aspx]Application”>Application Deadline - BoardingSchools.com) , although not all of them accepted the Common Application. You can contact the schools to which you are applying to verify, but I think you will find that they will accept these 3 recommendation forms. I think it is preferable to use these rather than another school’s forms.</p>
<p>Burb Parent: Which form did you give to a coach/other nonacademic recommender? We used the three TAB forms, but the EC one was significantly different from them.</p>
<p>I didn’t read the entire thread, just the entry from Alextoofour and I responded to that one.<br>
It was a few years ago, and I remember that there was a problem with some of the extra forms. Sorry, I don’t have an easy solution. I’m surprised that they still haven’t worked this one through.</p>
<p>Me too. It really doesn’t make sense to have a common recommendation form for math and English but not for EC’s. </p>
<p>I’m going back to my original recommendation–typed letter attached to the individual school’s form. It only takes a minute to fill out those checkboxes, and I do think it sends a better message to the school, even unconsciously. It’s hard to argue with Alex’s success…still, my son was in that tough, needs FA, Tier 1 applicant pool, so we went out of our way to not bend any “rules.”</p>
<p>FYI, you can get access to an “unbranded” EC/Generic Teacher recommendation form via the Go Choate! application site. You do have to register (free), but you can access the PDF forms that way. It’s got all the checkboxes, etc. like the usual Math/English forms, but no school branding or mentions. Hotchkiss provides a similar form in their PDF, but it has Hotchkiss logo and mentions in instructions.</p>
<p>The logos can easily be removed / whited out by a PDF editor. I assume many people use some sort of PDF editor? Sure makes it easy to type text into those forms, add straight blank lines in the white open spaces, etc.
I doubt very much if any of these schools would be so petty that they’d reject an applicant based on the source of the forms.</p>
<p>Not petty, I don’t think–I just think that given all the small factors that add up to an acceptance versus wait list, why use Groton’s form (for example) when you could use a generic one? </p>
<p>Don’t own a PDF editor (wish I did: are there inexpensive or free ones to be had?), but the TABS forms are editable. The Choate form might be the perfect solution for those ec recs.</p>
<p>We are using the TABS common rec forms for English and Math. For Science or History recommendations, which forms do you recommend? The math form has columns for Algebra etc. which may not be appropriate for Science rec. Are you using the more generic English rec form for Science and History recs? Thanks.</p>
<p>Classicalmama, for Macs, there’s PDFPen. I’ve used it successfully, mostly for signing up multiple children for camp. </p>
<p>If people writing recommendations are tech-savvy, it’s possible to send them a link to the form by email. You could also send them a pdf copy of the rec by email. They print it out, staple their paragraph to the form, and check the boxes. If they’re mailing it in, don’t forget addressed, stamped envelopes. </p>
<p>Exeter requests recommendations directly from the person online. </p>
<p>In the larger picture, though, if a school doesn’t have a dedicated form for a personal recommendation, I’d say that an old-fashioned letter of recommendation would do very well. For the OP, if there is no form, you could prepare a sheet which lists your contact information, and the basic school information, for each school. Then, if you’re applying to seven schools, prepare seven stamped, addresses return envelopes (returning to the schools, not you), each paper-clipped to the appropriate information page. All your sponsor needs to do is write one letter, make six copies, sign all seven, place the papers in the envelopes, and drop them in the mail.</p>
<p>As always, note that a recommendation which you do not see carries much more weight.</p>
<p>Sunrise: We sent a science teacher recommendation but only because son was homeschooled and the schools wanted recs from outside teachers (science and band were his only ps classes). They specifically told us to use the English teacher form, crossing out English on the top. SPS had an additional teacher form, so we just used that one.</p>
<p>If a student isn’t homeschooled, though, personally, I don’t think I’d send an extra teacher rec. unless the school (like SPS) specifically required it. Instead, I’d get a coach or music instructor or other youth leader to fill out the other recommendation, using the special interest form, or whatever the heck they call it.</p>
<p>Periwinkle: thanks for the recommendation. Unfortunately, we are reluctant pc users. I’d still love a recommendation for an inexpensive PDF writer if anyone has used one.</p>
<p>Classicalmama: Thank you. It’s a surprise that the schools don’t have a common EC form like the TABS or SSAT forms, they all have logos of the individual schools. Too bad for the EC recommenders! </p>
<p>Hello BS administrators! Please make a common EC form available if you are watching as this can save lives!</p>
<p>Periwinkle: Exeter’s recs are online? They weren’t last year. Or if they were, we missed it. All our recs were mailed in.</p>
<p>We asked each AO if it mattered which school’s forms we used, and they ALL said it didn’t matter. Judging by the acceptances, I concur 100% it doesn’t matter. They aren’t that petty, and, they know the application process is a burden already.</p>
<p>For a PDF editor to run on Windows, google ‘pdf editor’. You’ll get a lot of hits like NitroPDF, smartPDFedit, PDFill, etc. There are also some reviews. Take a look and try one that’s in your budget. There’s a lot of use for a PDF editor beyond just school applications.</p>
<p>Thanks, Alex–yup, I can Google and read recs.–but the last time I did that, the PDF editor wasn’t much good. Just wondering if someone here had personal experience with one. </p>
<p>I can’t remember if the Exeter forms were on-line or not–but the generic TAB forms have a PDF version that is easy to send to teachers who prefer to submit electronically. Another thing we appreciated about the more generic form was that it was less confusing to the teachers, who around here, don’t have much experience writing recommendations for prep schools. One “unbranded” form, four envelopes addressed to the different schools seemed most straightforward.</p>
<p>Sunrise: I agree–boarding schools need to develop a common ec form! While it obviously worked fine for Alex, the forms were just different enough to keep us from thinking that one form would fit all.</p>