A Recommendation Letter Not Received

<p>I keep hearing from colleges that they have not received one of my recommendation letters. This is not my own fault, as I gave the rec letters to the teachers last October, but one of the forgot to mail them. She said she'll mail the rec letters on Monday. Will this hurt my candidacy and have schools not even started to review my candidacy? I'm applying to some ivies, and colleges in California.</p>

<p>did you at anytime double check with the teacher in question to make sure she mailed them? It was her responsibility to mail them, but yours to follow up...a simple thank you card to the teacher in a timely fashion could have reminded her</p>

<p>that being said, you should be fine</p>

<p>I did. I've been reminding her for the last 2 months. Do you think colleges wait to review apps before the they have both recs. They already have one.</p>

<p>This won't help you, but will help others who'll apply next year and later.</p>

<p>If you have to keep reminding a teacher to send the reccs, take the hint and find someone else who's more reliable.</p>

<p>I'm having a similar problem so called in last Thurs Feb. 10 to one of the elite LAC's with a Jan 1 deadline to see what to do. They said it's important to FAX it in before Feb. 16. At this point, if it's mailed in it might just go into a great big pile of unfiled letters and be missed. That's just one school, of course. And that it wouldn't hurt candidacy. So FAX is much better than mailing; also doesn't add in the extra days of snail-mail delivery.</p>

<p>But, hey, I have another question. What's wrong with this teacher? If you were my child I'd say make a bee-line to the GC Monday morning to discuss.
Perhaps the teacher is disorganized, but I'm concerned maybe s/he wasn't intending to write you a positive rec letter. Did you ask the teacher originally, "Would you write me a letter?" or did you ask it the better way, "Could you write me a favorable letter?"
At this point, maybe the GC could have a chit-chat with the teacher to find out why feet were dragged. You have an "out" now and a chance to ask someone else to be your recommendor who will be more positive about you.
So see the GC and get some advice. Maybe the GC will jump to your rescue, which should be the case when a teacher behaved so ridiculously about a deadline. (I'm a teacher) Use this as a chance to switch recommendors, with the GC's blessing. Unless the GC finds out that the teacher wANTS to write you a good rec letter...and then havee the GC fax it for the teacher.
I think you need the GC's intervention.
Unlesss...you mean this teacher rec was like #4 and you already sent in 3 otheers. But if the college asked for 2 and this was your second letter of rec, you MUST get it in there to get full consideration.
Deal with it immediately Mon morning. You may have caught it just in time.
BTW, when a teacher tells you on Friday she'll mail it on Monday, that means she will be writing it over this weekend. Unless she mailed it once already and what she's doing is re-mailing it b/c it's lost in the mail or the college's offices.
Here's one more idea: one of our letters was misunderstood as a letter by an elective teacher, because he taught both an academic subject and an elective. Lots of ivies only want to hear from a "Core Academic Subject" teacher and won't count the letter if it's from someone who teaches you an elective. Could that be the mixup?
Summmary: Good that you are fixing it, probably just in time. Get the GC in on it, if possible. Use FAX.</p>

<p>I meant to add: usually when you Fax, you also pop a paper copy into an envelope. So if the teacher actually mailed it on Monday when you talk to her (or the GC talks to her), no problem, it'll just back up the Faxing.
Fax it and mail it, in other words.</p>

<p>I didn't mean to be harsh, but sometimes you just have to take care of business...if this teacher is a flake, then you have to find another one...why risk something so important</p>

<p>me wonders why the teacher did this....</p>

<p>also is this for you or your son....I am confused...I saw another thread about a son applying to schools</p>

<p>"I meant to add: usually when you Fax, you also pop a paper copy into an envelope. So if the teacher actually mailed it on Monday when you talk to her (or the GC talks to her), no problem, it'll just back up the Faxing.
Fax it and mail it, in other words."</p>

<p>Are you allowed to fax these types of letters? At my school, the policy is that you can't even open the envelope or read it.</p>

<p>The Teacher can fax if from the school....</p>