<p>Hi, i'm from the UK and have only recently decided to add Columbia to my uni choices, so havent had the columbia specific recs filled out by my teachers. My problem is that we finish for christmas in two days, and they are both very busy two days and so my teachers are pretty reluctant to fill out the forms on top of the ones they have already written.</p>
<p>Would columbia mind if I just sent the common app forms, seeing as the teachers will probably only copy what they have written from this on to the columbia ones?? I will try to get my councellor to fill in the school report on the specific columbia forms though.</p>
<p>most teachers write letters and ignore the form the schools provide, that way only small modifications need to be made for multiple schools. ask your teachers to write letters, you can ignore the form columbia provides (that checklist type thing)</p>
<p>i don't know what you mean by 'common app' forms, unless you mean The Common App, in which case I'd say no no no do not send that. Columbia has its own form--either have that one filled out, or have letters sent. follow directions. not following directions is a minor thing that can get you rejected when they're down to making the final decisions and need some basis by which to eliminate people. it also shows that you don't care that much. i don't think the application is due until january, and they could write a letter over a lunch break. you could certainly just fax the letters of recommendation over just so that they have a copy, and then mail a hard copy with express mail.</p>
<p>ah okay, yer, i did mean the Common App reference forms. i'll ask my teachers if they will do them, but over here the teachers seem to make a huge fuss over filling out the extra forms, and they have already done two sets for me. </p>
<p>I'm not intending on sending the whole common application, just the two reference forms. My councellor will fill out the school report ect. on the Columbia forms, but with two days till the end of term and one of my referees being rather ill at the moment, it might be difficult.</p>
<p>I've spoken to several schools (not Columbia, though) and they've said they don't care if you use the Common App forms or their own. They just want the info. Either e-mail or call Columbia and ask.</p>
<p>Uk teachers aren't really that familiar with the application process and we don't have a specialist US councellor or anything, and so no one really told me that most teachers write letters insead of the forms.</p>