<p>D is getting ready to approach two of her teachers about writing recommendation letters for her. She is going to do her college applications online and one of the colleges she is applying to has their own form to print and give to the teachers so she will do that. The teachers complete it and mail it directly to the college admissions dept. The other schools she will be applying to don't ask (on their websites) for a teacher rec as part of the application process. Should she go ahead and get written recommendations from her teachers in case those school ask for them later in the process?
Thanks.</p>
<p>You might want to check the list of schools which use the Common Ap - maybe all your schools are on there. Then you can just use the same form for everyone.</p>
<p>However, I don't think the colleges care too much. Many times the form even says that a separate letter may be submitted in place of the form.</p>
<p>My D got her teacher recs from her 11th grade teachers in Germany, prior to our moving back here. Since she didn't know what schools she'd be applying to, she just asked them to fill out the Common Ap form, and write the rec on a separate page. We made copies of the recs (and translations, for those who wrote in German) and sent them to all the schools. They weren't even in sealed envelopes. We had the German teacher at her US high school sign off on the translations. </p>
<p>Since D was applying for music programs or scholarships, some schools had their own forms for that. In those cases, she copied the music teacher's rec, and attached it to the form she had filled out herself, leaving off the signature or any evaluations, and adding a note of explanation.</p>
<p>None of the schools complained. (And her applications were successful.)</p>
<p>It is probably not a good idea to actually give the teachers the recommendation forms now -- but it is a good idea to ask whether the teachers would be willing to write recommendations.</p>
<p>The forms that are online now are mostly last year's forms. Your student will be expected to use the new forms that will be posted along with the applications this summer.</p>
<p>As for schools that don't ask for recommendations, it would be up to the student whether or not to submit any. If they are very large public universities, the overburdened admissions staff may not have time to read recommendations, but even so, I don't think anyone would be offended if the student submitted one or two. The guidance counselor might be able to advise you better on this point, though.</p>
<p>Thanks. She was going to ask them about it first. One of the teachers approached her last week and said to let her know if she needed a teacher recommendation letter for college that she would love to give her one. She was one of her teachers earlier this year and was recently promoted to an asst. principal position and transferred to another school and we ran into her outside of school. The other teacher she is asking is her advanced functions & modeling teacher who is the chairperson over the math dept. D saw on one of the websites last night that the college forms are for 2007 and the new ones will be available sometime in Sept. but thanks for the heads up.</p>
<p>The Common Ap forms are usually available the first or second week of July.</p>
<p>It might be a good idea for your daughter to tell her guidance counselor that she is going to get one of her recommendations from a teacher who no longer works at her school.</p>
<p>Some high schools (my son went to one that does this) insist on collecting all of the paperwork relevant to a particular student's application, putting it all in one envelope, and mailing everything out together. But in your daughter's case, this is not practical because one of the recommendations will be coming from elsewhere. You don't want your daughter's paperwork held up because the guidance department is waiting for a document that will never come.</p>
<p>Not all schools do it this way, though. Some just let teachers submit recommendations on their own. My daughter's high school did it that way, and her GC never even knew who was recommending her.</p>