<p>I'm a junior in high school, and I was told by one of my teachers that it's good to get as many teacher recommendations as possible. I've never asked for a recommendation for college before (because I haven't needed to), and I'm just wondering how that process goes.</p>
<p>Do they physically type a recommendation up and print it out on letter head for you to mail off wherever you please? Or do they email it to the university or myself electronically? I'm just not sure what to expect..</p>
<p>If they were to send it to specific universities, I would wait until I knew which ones I was applying to, and I would be careful about inadvertently acquiring iffy "recommendations".</p>
<p>Most schools want, at most, two teacher recommendations in ‘core’ subjects (english, math, sciences, history, language) - and if you are applying for an engineering major, some will want at least one of those to be math.</p>
<p>The common application has a recommendation form that you give to the teacher (ideally with as much of the boilerplate info already filled out and envelopes that are already addressed and stamped) so they just fill out the form, make copies, sign and send.</p>
<p>Your guidance counselor will also fill out a different recommendation form talking about your school, and how you compare to your classmates.</p>
<p>In all cases, you might want to provide an information sheet (our school requires students to fill out an info sheet) providing information on what your goals are, what your biggest achievements have been and what your most significant personal challenges were, along with anything else you want them to know. Some face time with the teacher or GC is also a good idea.</p>
<p>Those letters of rec are due by the application deadline, but as long as you get your application in on time, schools are forgiving if teachers’ recs are a bit delayed.</p>
<p>As for additional recs: Those are generally best if you have only one or two from people who know you well in a context that is very different from school and therefore have something unique to add to your application - a coach, an employer, someone from your church whose known you for many years, etc…Random recs from people who attended that school, are themselves ‘big names’ or are just repeating what’s already been said are wasting your, their and the admissions staffs’ time. Don’t do it.</p>