Changing a Letter-Writer on AMCAS

My son submitted his AMCAS application last month and it was just verified yesterday, so he is receiving secondary applications, but he is still missing one letter. He’s already marked this letter to be sent to all of the schools that he applied to.

The missing letter-writer has been unreachable for the past month, and will not be back on campus for another few weeks. My son has a backup letter from another professor, but it appears that he cannot substitute this letter for the missing one.

Two questions:

  1. if he submits the backup letter (meeting the three-letter requirement for each school), will the application be interpreted as complete, or will it still be considered incomplete until all letters designated for the college are received?
  2. is there any way to substitute one letter-writer for another, or assign an additional letter-writer to each school?

Thanks

His new recommender needs to first upload the letter. Once the letter is uploaded and given an ID by AMCAS, your son can then assign the new letter to his schools.

He will then need to email each of his schools individually to inform the admissions staff that the first letter will not be coming. Unless he notifies each school, admissions will consider his application incomplete and place it on hold until the letter is received.

I thought AMCAS allows more than 3 letters? Can’t he simply add the 4 letter and those schools which are ready to proceed with 3 will interview him?

That’s the million dollar question. I imagine the concern is if the student simply has a 4th LOR sent in, the student’s app will considered “incomplete” and not reviewed until all 4 LORs are sent in.

@WayOutWestMom What do you know about this?

^^ nevermind. Lol. For some reason I didn’t see Wowmom’s response.

Yes, mom2college kids, that is the question!! Thank you all for responding, luckily his prof FINALLY uploaded the letter. My son is out of panic mode.