How does sending recommendation letters work?

Applying to College
1

<p>I am only a sophomore right now but I am curious as to how this works and I also may need to know soon because I am planning on applying to a few summer programs.</p>

<p>Let’s say you are applying to 10 colleges and each college requires two recommendation letters. So you choose your two most favorite teachers from Junior or Senior year and you ask them to write you a college recommendation letter. If I understand this correctly, the recommendation letters are handwritten and put in envelopes and sent off by the teachers (you supply the envelopes already postmarked and everything). Does each teacher rewrite a recommendation letter 10 times and send all of them off?</p>

2

<p>They are not handwritten. This is not the stone age. They type and print, though they do sign them my hand.</p>

<p>Also, many schools now have systems where recommendations are submitted online. You insert the e-mail address of the recommender, and they are sent a message with log-in information to get into the system and simply paste in/upload the recommendation, no snail mail required. Though, snail mail can still be used in this case, if you prefer.</p>

3

<p>Most teachers prefer to have their recommendation letters typed rather than handwritten. A well-known system, the Common Application (<a href=“http://www.commonapp.org%5B/url%5D”>www.commonapp.org</a>), is used by many universities as a way to unify the college application process. When teachers and counselors have to write to universities that use the Common Application, they send only one recommendation per student (online). The letter is then given to all colleges to which the student is applying [through the Common App].</p>

<p>Recommendation letters are suposed to give admissions officers a third party’s look into the applicant’s personality, and usually play major importance in the admissions process.</p>

4

<p>Others may disagree, but I’d narrow down your choice. Ten universities seems a bit excessive. Remember that each university has an application fee (very roughly $50 to $75), so the costs can add up quickly.</p>