Updating Recommenders

[academyboundd]

I know that it's good etiquette to update your recommenders and anyone else who's helped in the college admissions process in any way on your status of admission. Do I need to do this for every college I applied to, or should I only do it for the school I end up choosing? I don't want it to sound like a robot and "mass-send" emails every time I hear from a college because I feel as though it would lose its significance by college #7. Any thoughts and suggestions?

 

[AROTC-dad]

I personally would send one or maybe just two updates with the second one after you have made a choice. Any more than that would be a bit much especially for a school counselor who writes a ton of LOR's.

 

[usna1985]

I would think that, after you've made your choice, you could update all. "Thanks for your support [blah, blah, blah]. . . I've decided to attend X school."

Now, if there is someone who has shown a particular interest in how things turn out at a particular school (i.e., has invited frequent updates), you might take a different approach with that person.

 

[time2]

^^ I agree, I would wait until you have made your final choice of which college to attend and then thank those who wrote letters of recommendation. I don't see a value in 'keeping them updated' each time you hear something from various colleges where you applied and definitely not with some generic mass mailing. Most who wrote letters of recommendation probably have no interest in the individual details of each college's application process.

I would not use a distribution list for this purpose. Even if you cut/paste some similar wording it seems far more personal to send individual emails.