Hi,
I just realized that my teachers did not refer to my legal name in their recommendations, but with my nickname. Yale states that this could be a problem when matching up applications.
What exactly should I do?
If your teachers uploaded their recommendations to your Common Application, it shouldn’t matter, as everything is bundled together in one pdf. While it may be confusing at first for Admissions, it shouldn’t be a problem. And if there’s a question, Admissions can always contact your GC.
FWIW: It really matters when your teachers snail mail in your recommendation letters and Admissions has to match your nickname to your legal name. That’s when all confusion breaks loose.
Even then, it’s not that big a deal. The snail mail copy of the Common App Recommendation has a header with your legal name and the Common App ID, among other info. Additionally, the Common App asks you for your preferred name (nickname) as well. If, as an example, your legal name is Richard, and your preferred name is Rick, and your recs refer to you are Rick, I would not worry. However, if your recs refer to “Sparky” and there is no cross-reference to that nickname, it will still only take the college 2 seconds to cross-reference against the Common App ID…
To give another example, many Asian students living in the US have an “English” name; the teachers probably forget what the student’s legal name is.