No Longer Applying to Certain Schools: Etiquette for Notifying Recommenders

[Umlaut]

I made a spur of the moment decision to no longer apply to two of the six programs I'm applying for . The deadlines for these schools have not passed; however, I do not know if my recommenders have sent in the rec letters yet to each program. I'm afraid that if they already wrote these letters, it would do more harm than good suddenly say I'm no longer needing a letter of rec for these programs.

 

What is the right thing to do here? 

[MsDarjeeling]

Inform them immediately.  That way if they haven't written the letters they don't waste their time.  Just explain that you have reevaluated your program choices and decided that those two are not as good of a fit as you thought.  If they've already sent the letters I don't think you need to do anything.  The school will likely toss it if the rest of your application doesn't arrive in time.

[TakeruK]

Also, it's not like they spent an incredible amount of time on these two letters specifically. They probably wrote a general letter to send to all schools and then customized each school's letter a little (extent of customization may be just changing the school's name), so they probably won't feel that upset. This is all "probably" though but I would be confident enough in that to suggest that you inform them ASAP.