<p>Hi, I have an issue with the "Common REcommendation Forms". So say I'm applying to Andover, Hotchkiss, Choate, Groton, and Cate. They all have recommendation forms that your teachers fill out, and they're called "Common Recommendation FOrms" but they all have the school name at the top. Does this mean each teachr will have to fill out 5 forms each? THank you!</p>
<p>yes, each school has a set of recommendation forms your teachers/mentors need to fill out. Good luck!</p>
<p>NO–the common recommendation form can be filled out once, copied by the teacher and sent to the schools–just give them stamped, addressed envelopes for each. If you want a recommendation form without a particular school’s name, go to the TABS website, and use the common recommendation forms there. This is what we did…people will tell you that it doesn’t matter that you, say, send Groton Andover’s form, and it probably doesn’t, but why chance a subconscious impression that you like one school more than the other when it’s easy enough to use the generic form.</p>
<p>I agree with classicalmama. Go to the [url=<a href=“http://www.boardingschools.com/how-to-apply/application.aspx][u]TABS[/u][/url”>Application Deadline - BoardingSchools.com]TABS[/url</a>] website, download the recommendation forms and use them for all the school’s you’re applying to. Do NOT ask teachers to fill out multiple forms. TABS provides three forms: (1) English teacher, (2) math teacher, and (3) principal/counselor.</p>
<p>Sports and performing arts are a bit trickier, because there is no common recommendation form for those - each school has its own. My suggestion: pick the form you like best, white out the school name at the top, photocopy it, and then give that to your coach or performing arts instructor.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that none of these recommendation forms is set in stone. If your teacher or coach prefers to just write a letter, the schools are happy to accept that also.</p>
<p>whoops, sorry for providing false information there. i didn’t know that there was a common recommendation form.</p>
<p>Thank you so much! Super helpful:)</p>
<p>Wait- some of the schools I’m applying to- like Choate and Groton, don’t accept the TABS Application Form D:</p>
<p>Right–but you can still use the TABS recommendation form. You don’t sent it in through TABS–just print the PDF’s and give them to your teacher. You’ll notice that they’re exactly the same as the other common recommendation forms. </p>
<p>For Groton, though, I seem to remember that the other forms–was it coach or special interest?–were significantly different from the other forms. My son ended up asking different coaches to fill out those forms so that he wouldn’t burden anyone. However, as dodgersmom says, having coaches or other recommenders write a letter and attach it to the form is also acceptable–we just happened to have coaches who don’t use computers, so we knew they’d be filling all those forms out by hand.</p>
<p>so when they fill out the TABS form, they photcopy multiple copoes or they copy it over and over again?</p>
<p>You give one copy to the teacher, the teacher fills out one, makes multiple copies, and sends them off to the schools for which you’ve provided SASE’s. Or, if they prefer, they can type the rec at the TABS site and print as many copies as they need. </p>
<p>That’s for math and English recommendations. The Special Interest Forms are different, and the easiest way to do those is to ask the coach, music teacher, youth leader, etc. to write a letter of rec. and attach it to each particular school’s form. They can easily complete any check-off boxes on those forms–what you want to avoid if possible is asking them to write multiple essays; the letter can replace those. Unless, of course, your coaches don’t type, like my son’s…in that case, we just asked two different coaches to each fill out 2 forms, which didn’t seem excessive.</p>
<p>Hope that makes sense!</p>