<p>Hi. A few weeks ago my teacher said she wouldn't be coming back next year but is willing to write a recommendation for a few students one of whom was me. I felt really bad for her and didn't really care about the recommendation but that she was fired from a job she loves so much. And now it hit me, don't teachers need to send recommendation letters straight to colleges? She said she will complete them this school year but it's not like I will know every college I want to apply to this year. What should I (/she) do?</p>
<p>When are you planning to start applying to colleges? If you have a list of the colleges you’re applying to, it’s a simple thing to check on CollegeBoard.com or the official websites to see if they even accept letters of recommendation (some of them don’t), if they have a specific format (ie on the school’s official letterhead), or if they want them from specific people (some of them ask for your guidance counselor only, some of them ask for more than one, some of them want from your “core classes” – Math, Science, Social Studies, English only, etc.) There’s no hurry to send out letters of recommendation until after you’ve started applying to colleges. </p>
<p>One possibility that you might consider (I’m not sure if it’ll be okay though), is that your teacher is willing, she can write / envelope the letters now and you can physically mail later them when necessary.</p>
<p>The teacher can leave the letter with your GC to be sent with your applications. The guidance office can make copies. Usually teachers only write one letter per student, not one for each college a student applies to. The colleges get copies.</p>
<p>Oh awesome. So she doesn’t need to write, student X is perfect for college X because of X Y and Z?</p>
<p>Not unless you ask her to. If you are worried about her writing a letter of rec that mentions a school that you end up not applying to, you can always give her or the counselor (as Northstarmom mentioned) a final list once you actually finish your applications.</p>