Hi. Just a quick query about something I struggle with.

I'm applying for PhDs with deadlines throughout January, earliest deadline being the 3rd.

My 2 referees have already written me references for a course from which I got rejected a couple of months ago. Two questions:

1. The courses I'm applying to are similar to that one, but a bit different - I previously applied for a machine learning course but am now applying for 4 computational neuroscience courses, plus another machine learning course. Do they tend to just copy+paste references, or would they write new ones? Just wondering because I feel I may have left it a little late, I'm hoping they can just paste the same references in for the 5 universities I'll be applying to and be done with it.

2. Would it be discourterous if I just sent them the reference requests without e-mailing them first? I did e-mail them last time, wondering if it's necessary I do that again, or if that would bother them.

Many thanks