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[whazzit]

Here are a couple of small procedural questions, and apologies if they've been covered elsewhere:

when applying, is it OK to use plain ol' regular white printing paper? Or is nicer paper with institutional letterhead preferred?

this might be really tiny: is it OK to fold application materials in a small envelope? or is it better to use those large manila envelopes?

I know these are petty questions. But hey, you know how it is.

[anon]

plain paper is fine, letterhead is good, fancy paper is silly.

large manilla please, when we put those folded materials, which are folded for 3-5 days, back into manilla folders, they take extra space.  

how are you folding these application anyway?
letter 2-4 pages
vita 4-11 pages
+ whatever else....

[squidward]

Applications also tend to get xeroxed,  so folded papers (or stapled ones) would not go through the automatic feeder too well.  It could jam everything up, and ruin your application, at which point they would throw it in the trash and never tell you (just being facetious to add to your paranoia).

[Bboy]

whazzit wrote:


> when applying, is it OK to use plain ol' regular white printing
> paper? Or is nicer paper with institutional letterhead
> preferred?
>

I once knew a professor who wouldn't look at CVs on fancy paper (meaning, colorful, or thick bond, not "letterhead-fancy"). They thought it was pretentious, and was an unsubstantiated attempt to get noticed.

I would spend more time on double checking for typos, error, consistencies, etc.