How many recommendation letters from one college professor

[Anonymous]

DS is applying to summer internship. Most of them require two recommendation letters from college professors in his major field. He does not have a lot of professors to ask, but two of them kindly agreed to write letters for him. Since it is very difficult to get an internship, he needs to submit many applicaitons. The letter will have the same content, but the professor will need to email/upload the letter to different places. He is afraid of asking the professor to send the letter to too many place as this will burden them. How mamy letters is reasonable to ask one professor to send if the content is the same? Is 20 too many? How about 30? TIA.

[Anonymous]

This is a good question. What a bad system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a good question. What a bad system.

Agreed. It is indeed a bad system. I do not understand why don't those internship programs just ask for contact infomation of the recommender, like in job applications where you do not need to submit a letter of recommendation, just the contact informaiton of your references. Most of students who apply to a program will not be accepted, yet they need to ask professors to write and send a letter in order to apply.

[Anonymous]

Can he ask to write a "to whom it may concern" and then simply make copies for each of the applciations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can he ask to write a "to whom it may concern" and then simply make copies for each of the applciations?

Thanks. Yes, it is a "to whom it may concern" general letter and he does not ask the professor to write different versions. However, all internship programs require the letter to be sent directly from the professor, not from the student. So, the professor will need send/upload the letter to each program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can he ask to write a "to whom it may concern" and then simply make copies for each of the applciations?

It's not writing the letters. It's doing the emailing/registration/uploading for 30 different organizations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can he ask to write a "to whom it may concern" and then simply make copies for each of the applciations?

It's not writing the letters. It's doing the emailing/registration/uploading for 30 different organizations.

Yes, exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can he ask to write a "to whom it may concern" and then simply make copies for each of the applciations?

Thanks. Yes, it is a "to whom it may concern" general letter and he does not ask the professor to write different versions. However, all internship programs require the letter to be sent directly from the professor, not from the student. So, the professor will need send/upload the letter to each program.

I'd not worry about that. Just let professors know. They do it all the time. Just don't apply to 100 different programs. Burden is on your kid to do the research and select the ones he really wants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can he ask to write a "to whom it may concern" and then simply make copies for each of the applciations?

Thanks. Yes, it is a "to whom it may concern" general letter and he does not ask the professor to write different versions. However, all internship programs require the letter to be sent directly from the professor, not from the student. So, the professor will need send/upload the letter to each program.

I'd not worry about that. Just let professors know. They do it all the time. Just don't apply to 100 different programs. Burden is on your kid to do the research and select the ones he really wants.

Kids don't apply broadly because they don't know which internships they really want, they apply broadly because they odds from any individual opportunity are long

[Anonymous]

At my university there was a service provided by a third party where we could ask the prof to upload the rec letter and then the service would send it out as requested. The idea is to keep the recommendation confidential from the student. I cannot remember what it was called but maybe your child’s school uses it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can he ask to write a "to whom it may concern" and then simply make copies for each of the applciations?

Thanks. Yes, it is a "to whom it may concern" general letter and he does not ask the professor to write different versions. However, all internship programs require the letter to be sent directly from the professor, not from the student. So, the professor will need send/upload the letter to each program.

I'd not worry about that. Just let professors know. They do it all the time. Just don't apply to 100 different programs. Burden is on your kid to do the research and select the ones he really wants.

Kids don't apply broadly because they don't know which internships they really want, they apply broadly because they odds from any individual opportunity are long

+1
PP what are you even talking about

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can he ask to write a "to whom it may concern" and then simply make copies for each of the applciations?

Thanks. Yes, it is a "to whom it may concern" general letter and he does not ask the professor to write different versions. However, all internship programs require the letter to be sent directly from the professor, not from the student. So, the professor will need send/upload the letter to each program.

I'd not worry about that. Just let professors know. They do it all the time. Just don't apply to 100 different programs. Burden is on your kid to do the research and select the ones he really wants.

Kids don't apply broadly because they don't know which internships they really want, they apply broadly because they odds from any individual opportunity are long

If my student has that attitude and asks me to upload 100 letters, I'd make sure it's addressed in my LOR.

[Anonymous]

Have your DS see whether the campus career services office can keep a rec letter on file and then upload it / send it out by email on his behalf if he gives them the contacts. That would not be an unheard-of service.

I personally can handle about half a dozen rec letters for an individual student before all the upload pings from the automated systems start to clutter my email and my schedule to the point of confusion (because there are plenty of people every day who need various things on various deadlines). If your DS needs much more than that, have him talk with the professors first. They themselves may have a better solution, like insisting on sending references by email, making one list, and doing a big BCC. (Recalcitrant faculty members can actually get concessions like this out of organizations, believe it or not.)

Failing that, at least tell DS to batch everything as close together as possible and give his recommenders a *complete, unchangeable list* of exactly what needs to be sent where, with everything organized in the same categories (e.g. destination, deadline, URL, contact). Messy student checklists and "oh, i forgot to add this one thing" emails slow us down when we really do want to help!

--College prof

[Anonymous]

My DD's friend is applying to like 17 different summer research positions and asked the same two professors. It's not too much work since they only have to tweak the letter once it's written. He did ask them in the fall though to allow enough time and has a complicated Excel spreadsheet going to track applications. Last year, my DD had the opposite approach because she didn't want to bother professors if she didn't have a good chance of getting in. As a sophomore who lacked research experience, she tried to limit her applications to those that didn't require any letters or those that only required contact information at the time of submission. You could always see if there are a few of those types of applications to throw in. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can he ask to write a "to whom it may concern" and then simply make copies for each of the applciations?

Thanks. Yes, it is a "to whom it may concern" general letter and he does not ask the professor to write different versions. However, all internship programs require the letter to be sent directly from the professor, not from the student. So, the professor will need send/upload the letter to each program.

I'd not worry about that. Just let professors know. They do it all the time. Just don't apply to 100 different programs. Burden is on your kid to do the research and select the ones he really wants.

Kids don't apply broadly because they don't know which internships they really want, they apply broadly because they odds from any individual opportunity are long

If my student has that attitude and asks me to upload 100 letters, I'd make sure it's addressed in my LOR.

Do you think HR departments aren't aware that they have hundreds or thousands of applicants for a few positions?