<p>Is this a problem? Or do colleges just use the letters to start a student's file in this case?</p>
<p>same ques here</p>
<p>In my D's case, they just started files, plural. (Initially she had a much larger list, & with teacher recs to send possibly to multiple institutions, including those with common app, the recs were sent en masse by the GC, to cover both Early apps & RD apps.)</p>
<p>Many colleges kept those files open without an app for quite some time, & then snail-mailed & phoned us later, inquiring about the rest of the package. (Scores without apps were also sent to some, since that process starts early, too.)</p>
<p>The only college that got kind of weird about it was Amherst. As soon as the <em>rec</em> was rec'd (very, very early) they e-mailed a demand for the app. fee <em>before</em> the app. They were the only school that did that. They snail-mailed a similar demand right after that. In any case, my D was a fee waiver candidate (an important detail that only gets revealed on the application-- hello!).</p>