<p>I'm a little confused about recommendations. Do we have to get different ones for each college, or can we get one from each teacher and copy for each college? Cause I always thought we could copy for each application, but I dont know anymore</p>
<p>Yes, you can give your teacher 1 form to fill out, and he/she can photocopy it for every school you are applying to.</p>
<p>Honestly, so many of these threads on College Confidential are about recommendation letters...</p>
<p>Okay, here's the deal. </p>
<ol>
<li>Colleges and universities request recommendation letters from academic teachers in your application.</li>
<li>Most schools require two recommendation letters. You may also send in supplemental recommendation letters.</li>
<li>Some schools limit whom you may ask for the two main, required letters. For example, UChicago says that you may not ask a world languages teacher for one of the main letters, although you may for a supplemental recommendation.</li>
</ol>
<p>The simple answer to your question is that you can get one from each teacher and copy for each college.</p>
<p>But the teacher might have to be a supplemental one for certain schools. For example,</p>
<p>I asked two teachers for recommendations: my math teacher and my Latin teacher. I applied to Carleton, Grinnell, Swarthmore, and U.Chicago. The first three schools request recommendations from any academic teacher, so I sent those recommendations to the first 3 schools. U.Chicago, however, said that Latin teachers can't be one of my main rec writers, so I had to ask my history teacher for one, and I used the Latin teacher for a supplement.</p>
<p>I could also have just used my math and history teachers for each of the schools, but I knew that my Latin teacher would write a better one.</p>
<p>Yeah, there should be a separate section altogether for recommendations. </p>
<p>And thanks for both your responses. So I plan on getting from English, Spanish, and either History or math. So it's a good idea to send the two best ones to the schools as the required one, and the other one as supplement. But for example, if I applied to U Chicago, my math/history and english would be mandatory and Spanish could be optional. Does that sound right?</p>
<p>Yes; I would send just two recommendations (that's really all you need) unless there are some extenuating circumstances that really make it important that you have a 3rd recommendation. But yeah, that's basically right, except U.Chicago makes one math/science and the other humanities.</p>
<p>Question: how much of an effect do rec letters have on UC admissions?</p>
<p>^ UCs do not accept recommendation letters</p>
<p>it implies on the website that rec letters are optional.</p>
<p>^then that must be a change from class of 2008 applicants since last year recs were not accepted other than in appeal cases. If it's not clear, maybe just give them a call.</p>
<p>appeal cases? like what?</p>
<p>^ oh, no need to worry about that now...if one is rejected from a UC, you can appeal the decision but in that case you'd need to show some new compelling info that wasn't included on your app and that could give cause for the school to reconsider. In those cases, rec letters could be included.</p>