How to go about references when applying to multiple schools?

[RebootedJordan]

I'm sorry if this question has already been asked before since it seems like a common question but I couldn't find a post on it.

I am planning on applying to graduate school soon. Most of the programs I'm planning on applying to require 2-3 academic references, which I have BUT I plan to apply to multiple schools that I think I have a chance of being competitive in (10-15 schools at least). The problem I'm running into is that if I'm applying to this many schools I don't want to be harassing my past professors for 15+ references, as I'm sure they have better things to do than write 15+ difference references for me.

I was wondering if anyone had a solution or could recommend anything to get around this problem as I don't want my references to start writing poorer references towards the end due to fatigue from writing all those references.

I'm applying in Canada to various different provinces and planning on applying to programs in the field of Psychology.

[ThousandsHardships]

They won't be writing 10-15 different references. Likely they will write a single reference letter and use it for all of the schools, with small modifications as needed. And if there are supplementary questions, they will spend a few minutes answering those as well. Professors know that you'll be applying to multiple schools. It's part of their job to help you through the process. The best thing you can do for them is not to avoid asking them for letters, but to send out the official requests several months prior to the first deadline and all at the same time if possible. Also give them a list of the schools and deadlines. With all of this information laid out ahead of them, they will be able to work to their own schedule. In my experience, each of my recommenders submitted the majority of their recommendations within a half-hour time period (some within two minutes of each other). Clearly they weren't writing entirely new letters within that timespan or else they couldn't have submitted them one right after the other.

Edited August 27, 2017 by ThousandsHardships

[fuzzylogician]

It's usually perfectly fine, as @ThousandsHardships notes above. They'll have one basic letter that they'll tweak for each school, plus they'll answer some questions online comparing you to their other students. This is entirely routine and expected. In addition to trying to send all prompts around the same time, you should also do two other things:

(a) email to let them know they should have received emails from X, Y, and Z, right after you're done sending the prompts, so they can let you know if there's anything missing. This email should also contain the deadlines for all the schools, and of course a "thank you". 

(b) set up a reminder system. It may just be you telling them that you'll email a reminder two weeks before each deadline. If/when they don't reply, you might send another one a week out and lastly the day before. Profs often only submit their letters last minute, so in the interest of sparing your nerves you might want to explicitly talk to them about this.