<p>In a nutshell: D applied to 7 colleges EA....4 of which she's borderline competitive for...meaning that items such as the teacher recs are really key, ya know? </p>
<p>So at the end of junior year, she zeroed in on the 2 teachers to ask....she had a good number of choices...she's 3/300 in her class and is a likable/involved student. Right before she was to send the request in August, one of them (a state "teacher of the year" candidate) resigned from the school (an urban public high school) and went to a private school. it stirred up a fuss. It didn't seem to make much sense to ask him.</p>
<p>Teacher "C" was recruited...well-respected, has taught D for two years and is known for writing strong recs. She said "sure."</p>
<p>Now here we are...November 8....all apps are in and no rec uploaded from her. (Teacher "A" uploaded his early and I believe they're over-the-top good). D has written her 3 times over 3 months and talked with her in the hallway...she always says she's going to "do it today."</p>
<p>At this point, i'm flummoxed. Does D start over from scratch and somehow get another teacher to write something this weekend? And how does she explain that without throwing the other teacher under the bus? It's infuriating because all that teacher had to do was say 'no" back in September and all would be clear today. </p>
<p>Can she talk to teacher C about this? Perhaps something has happened- and teacher C thought she had uploaded it already? Your D can be polite and thank her for offering to write the letter and ask when it will be uploaded. Perhaps there was some misunderstanding about the deadline. If this teacher is known for writing good recs, she may have many of them to write. It is possible that she has some extra students from the other teacher who resigned. </p>
<p>I would first check with teacher C, but if it doesn’t look like this teacher will do it in time, I think it is OK to ask another teacher to do one as well and let teacher C submit one too. Is it a problem to have an extra letter if teacher C does submit?</p>
<p>The teacher who resigned may still be able to write a letter. I don’t think this can be done for guidance counselors who are not at the school, but it is possible the college would accept a former teacher letter- after all, it is no different from any other former teacher. </p>
<p>My recommendation is to get another teacher. Actually I think it is always a good idea on the common application to invite an extra teacher if one is taking too much time writing the recs.</p>
<p>We had a similar problem. D had decided to get recommendations from Teachers A (English) and B (AP Stat). Then teacher C approached D and said: why didn’t you ask me? Teacher C is head of the math dept and definitely “outranks” Teacher B. So my D switched to Teacher C in addition to Teacher A. Teacher C then proceeded to be very slow in submitting the recommendation. If finally got done, phew. Our approach was to ask the GC to gently remind the teacher. Also, if you are using the Common App, you could go into “Manage Recommenders” and hit the refresh button and it will re-send the invitation to the delinquent teacher. I’d also be curious to know if any classmates are using the same teacher and experiencing the same problem. </p>
<p>thanks all for the good advice! So D punted…and sent a letter to backup teacher C…and simply laid out what has happened…he’s her AP Lit teacher and his rec will be good…he’s already replied, said he’d be “honored” to do it and is working on it now. Yay for great teachers! </p>
<p>Sounds like we weren’t the only ones with teachers slow to respond…my daughter asked her favorite teacher in mid-August via email and reminded her several times since school started. In the end, she finally submitted just a few days later than EA deadline. In the meantime, she got in touch with a teacher who had left the school and is now living outside the country. He also responded “honored to do it” and had it submitted within a day or two. A second YAY for great teachers!</p>
<p>Most teachers have a 2-week leeway to upload their letters (and this is a rather overwhelming/hectic period, especially for teachers who have many requests) - as long as it’s not Nov.15, you’re still fine.
In addition, make sure they know your deadline for EA/ED was Nov 1, not Nov 15 (as many colleges have Nov 15 deadlines).
Bring a new “brag sheet” if necessary - they may be stuck because they lost the first one.
On the CommonApp, it’s as simple as hitting the little round arrow to resend the recommender’s request. Wait 48h and send again if nothing’s been uploaded, and so forth.
In the meanwhile, ask another teacher. Most colleges allow for an extra recommendation anyway so if the respected teacher uploads something within the week and you have an extra, you can just either decide which one to use, or send all three.</p>