Sending recommendation letters – confused!

Hi, I got my teachers to write some awesome recommendation letters for me but...I'm not exactly sure how to send them to colleges. Can anyone walk me through the process? Thanks so much!

Sure, happy to help! The process of sending recommendation letters to colleges varies depending on the application platform you're using. Here's a general overview of how it works on the two most common platforms: Common Application and Coalition Application.

For the Common Application:

1. Log in to your account and go to the "My Colleges" tab.

2. Select the college you want to send the recommendation letters to.

3. On the college's page, click on the "Recommenders and FERPA" section.

4. In this section, you'll be able to invite recommenders by entering their names, titles, and email addresses.

5. Your teachers will receive an email invitation from the Common App with a link to create their own account and upload their recommendation letters.

6. Once your teachers submit their letters, they'll be attached to your application, and you'll see the status update on your end.

For the Coalition Application:

1. Log in to your account and go to the "Colleges" tab.

2. Choose the college you want to send the recommendation letters to, and click on the "Application" link.

3. On the left sidebar, click on the "Official Documents" section.

4. Scroll down to the "Recommendations" category, and click the "Invite" button.

5. You'll be prompted to enter your teachers' names and email addresses.

6. Similar to the Common App, your teachers will receive an email invitation from the Coalition App with a link to create an account and upload their recommendation letters.

7. Once submitted, the letters will be attached to your application, and you'll see the status change in your Coalition account.

If you're using any other application platforms and can't figure out how to submit your letters of recommendation, I'd suggest reaching out to the school's admissions office directly - I'm sure they'd be happy to help! It's also never a bad idea to check in with your recommenders and make sure they didn't hit any snags with the submission process.

It sounds like you already have the recommendation letters you need, but if you decide to apply to any scholarships or specific programs that require additional ones, remember that you always want to give recommenders plenty of notice (at least a month, but ideally 2-3). They might be writing letters for multiple students and will need time to thoughtfully craft each one.

Finally, be sure to thank your teachers for their time and effort in writing your recommendation letters! For guidance on how to thank your recommenders, check out this blog post from CollegeVine: https://blog.collegevine.com/how-to-thank-teachers-who-wrote-recommendation-letters

Best of luck with your college applications!