Say…I’m applying to 5 schools that need 1 or 2 letters of rec. Do I need to get these from like 10 different teachers? Or can I get 2 teachers to write them for the 5 schools? How would that work?
I’m assuming this is the CommonApp. You just need two teachers to upload their letters and you can attach them to any application.
It would be the same if you weren’t using the Common App, except that you would have to tell each teacher to upload their their letter to several different college websites. You shouldn’t need to involve more than two or three teachers.
But do the teachers say the name of the school in the rec?
No – they upload generic recs used again and again. Nothing wrong with that at all. When approaching your teachers, they’ll know to write generic ones for you to submit to all your colleges.
Ok thanks guys, so helpful! I’m glad I’ll only have to ask 2 teachers because that makes it so much easier. I’m a junior, so should I ask the two teachers at the end of junior year, or beginning of senior?
It depends – one of your Sr year teachers might be the one you want. Certainly nothing wrong with asking at the end of this year, though. Hint for you: ask your GC whom he/she might recommend – they know which teachers are the better writers! Not all are equally good
Beginning of senior is best. I asked all mine on the first week.
Yea, I think I’ll do beginning of seniors year. And, im an IB diploma candidate at a small school, so all my teachers next year will be the same I think
Our kid’s school required that they ask for one spring of junior year. That spreads out the work for teachers, which they appreciate.
@intparent I guess it just depends then. My teachers told us that they would not be working them over the summer so it would be pointless to ask them as they would just forget about it.
My school also requires that we ask at the end of Junior year. I think it’s a good idea to do this so that you don’t have to scramble at the beginning of senior year once everyone else starts asking-- but since you go to a small school this might not matter.
I second T26’s suggestion of asking your GC the best teachers to ask-- obviously you should ask the teachers you have the best relationship with, but on top of that your GC knows which teachers write the best letters AND which teachers are good about getting their letters done on time. Good luck!
Small high schools have fewer teachers , so it can still be a challenge.
I guess it depends on the school… different people have different ideas of what “small” means.
Whatever the case, I think asking at the end of Junior year is best because it allows you to ask well in advance and gives your teachers plenty of time to write a meaningful response.
My kids asked their teachers at the end of junior year. One said remind him again senior year. The other had a very long questionnaire you had to fill out before he’d right the recommendation. This was APUSH. The questions I remember.
What are you thinking about majoring in and why
What colleges are you applying to and why
Which text book did you like best and why.
Supply a photocopy of one of the research papers with my corrections
Say why you picked this topic
Tell me what grade you ended up with on the AP
I suspect that after my son answered all those questions, plus the ones I can’t remember, he probably had plenty of material for a great recommendation!
But generally you’ll just have one or two teachers who write a generic letter that will be fine for all your colleges.
I think most teachers end up procrastinating and write the letters in the fall of senior year, but your junior year teachers are likely to know you best and it’s good to ask them sooner rather than later. Some teachers are so popular for letters that they put limits on them.
I think it’s a great idea to ask a teacher in spring of your junior year. Would the teacher just hold on to it (assuming they write it soon thereafter) until the student has a common app opened/created I assume?
@mathmom wow I wish I had that teacher lol I had to write like a 7 page response to each of my teachers
A teacher who actually writes the letter right away will presumably save it in a word file and upload it when the student provides him the Common Application information. It’s not like the old days when you had to type each one by hand.