<p>I've been looking through the preview of the common app, for the coming year. However I've some doubts regarding the section on recommendations.
1. How does the recommendation system work? Do I have to pass the particular page of my common app to the teachers I want recommendation from?
2. Do they use the space on the app to write recommendations? Isn't the space provided too small? (it's only a couple of lines)
3. Or can my teacher just type out the recommendation on a separate document and pass it to me?
4. Must the teacher or school send the recommendation directly to the colleges I'm applying or can they pass them to me such that I can attach them to my app and send it independently?
5. Also, is there a suggested or typical length of recommendations? Like how Many words or pages, etc? </p>
<p>Also one last thing was, as for the common app itself, should I send a hardcopy printed to the colleges I'm applying or is it online? And if it's online, how can I send in my recommendations? (assuming the recommendations are supposed to be printed in hard copy) </p>
<p>I would appreciate if anyone could help me, because I'm an international so I'm not too familiar with the app. Thanks!!!</p>
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<li><p>It depends on if your teacher uses paper or online recommendations. Just ask them in the beginning of the year to do your recommendation, and if they say yes, ask them if they prefer paper or online. If they say online, then you type in their name and email on the common app website and they can do it electronically. If they do paper recommendations, then they need the forms to fill out and they’ll probably attach a letter on school letter head. Depending on what they ask for, if you’re doing paper recs, they might want you to give them addressed envelopes and stamps and stuff. But my teachers just handed me the letters and forms, so it wasn’t really an issue.</p></li>
<li><p>At my school they use school letter head to write them. That’s pretty typical. Or if they do them online they have as much space as they need.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, if they feel comfortable just handing it to you so you can read it. Depends on the teacher. You typically waive your write to read the rec as a common courtesy, but some let you read it anyway. Just depends.</p></li>
<li><p>It depends on the teacher. I don’t know of anyone who “attached it to the app.” It looks kind of suspicious if you just mail it in a plain envelope or with your application, so if a teacher handed it to me, then I used my hs’s official envelopes to mail the rec to the college individually.</p></li>
<li><p>Not really. Most are a page or two in length. But you don’t need to worry about that. Just pick a teacher who knows you and your abilities well, preferably with a good reputation for writing recs, and trust that they know what to do. I wouldn’t go around giving them a specific length or anything like that. They’re used to writing letters by now probably.</p></li>
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<p>Good luck!</p>