Embarrassing Typos in Letter of Recommendation

Applying to College
1

I just found this out today, and I am fairly stressed/freaking out.

So, back in December — I signed the FERPA on the Common App to waive my recommendation viewing rights. I did not read either of my two recommendations that were sent off to various Ivy Leagues and other private schools. I didn’t think much about them.

Fast forward to today — I pick up a printed copy of the same recommendation from one of the teachers for a scholarship that I need to mail. As I’m folding the letter for the envelope, I catch that in the first sentence, I am referred to as “her” (I am male). Of course, I had to keep reading it…

I read the letter. Most of it is not from a rec “template”, and the middle portion is actually pretty good and unique. But then, in the final two paragraphs, s/he repeats three whole sentences back to back. THREE. WHOLE. SENTENCES. At this point, I’m thinking that they didn’t even take the mere 10 seconds to skim/proofread what they wrote. I mean, this is my future here!

The grammar mistakes continue. There’s about 3-4 minor ones like the “her” in the beginning, the one big repetition one, then his/her name is at the bottom (not even signed) with a “Feel free should you feel for more information on [my name]” in a different sized font. At one point, s/he even refers to me as a “simple student in many ways”, by trying to emphasize that there’s more to me than meets the eye, but the point doesn’t come across as fully intended…so it appears that s/he is painting me as simple-minded when that is not the intent.

The letter was sent to about 10 schools,two of which I was deferred from ED/EA back in December.

So finding this out now, I’m wondering what I can do about it if anything. I talked to my counselor and s/he was concerned as well, and suggested s/he could shed light on the situation briefly in the Mid-Year report, something saying that s/he saw the letter as part of the scholarship application and was concerned it would negatively affect my application, so s/he would write that the recommendation writer was stressed/busy and didn’t proofread correctly instead of Adcoms assuming they didn’t care about my recommendation. I seriously could understand a few typos, but this just reeks of minimal effort despite the letter’s length.

I have no clue what to do (or if anything should even be done). Should I follow my GC’s suggestion for the Mid-Year report? Can I get the teacher to email an amended recommendation to regional admissions rep with an apology? Should I send a third rec from the humanities department to support this typoed one? Should I cross my fingers and just hope for the best? Should I even be concerned about this at all? I feel like I should be, since I dropped nearly $1,000 of my OWN hard-earned money along with countless hours preparing for these applications, just to have a teacher I trusted botch with typos like this.

Any help is appreciated!

2

It reflects mostly on the teacher, not you, the applicant. However, I do have to ask if this was a fluke or did you make a mistake selecting the teacher?

3

@JustOneDad This teacher is immensely popular at my school and is one of the most passionate and outstanding teachers in my school’s history. S/he told me last year that I was one of his/her most impressive students, and for this rec, I had to fill out a 9 page brag sheet and the whole shebang with all kinds of information. So a COMPLETE fluke. I’m very disappointed and feel disrespected, outcome of college admissions aside.

4

Although the teacher’s typos won’t negatively affect you, her inability to clearly express her thoughts me.

I suggest you send another teacher’s LOR too. Look at the last example, of Brian, in this link from MIT giving tips to the teachers for writing recommendations:

http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/writingrecs

The critique says, “This is an example of an evaluation in which we really don’t know what the writer is trying to tell us. The comments provided certainly do not give much substantive information. We are left wondering whether there is just not much to say about this student or whether the teacher just didn’t bother to put much effort into the recommendation. This is a situation where we will probably form our impressions based on the pattern of all the recommendations. If all are equally uninformative, we will assume there wasn’t much to say, but if the others are better, we will assume this teacher did not give much effort to the recommendation.”

You see, the adcomms know whether it was the teacher’s ignorance or whether the student is simply not good. Sending another recommendation helps them compare and form a conclusion.

5

It seems like the best solution might be for the teacher herself to call, tell them she made a terrible mistake and ask if she could send a proper letter. It almost looks like she might have sent a rough draft by accident. Getting her to fix the issue would put your application in the best possible position.

6

@JustOneDad I’m not sure it would be appropriate to ask them to call/contact 11 schools. I also don’t think it was a rough draft by mistake, but I guess it’s possible. I actually think that the teacher got too many LOR requests, got lazy, and decided not to proofread.

7

@determined2300 I Sent another teacher’s letter of recommendation and it was very good; I saw it as a result of scholarships and whatnot. It gave some very specific in class examples that referenced my leadership, then tied them to my community involvements. So overall a pretty solid LOR that hopefully would supplement the bad one. But I"m not sure.

8

I don’t think it’s inappropriate for the teacher to fix the mess, no matter how many schools there are. The GC office can do most of the submission work. And, it helps her redeem herself, too. I can’t imagine her just letting this lie. It’s very unprofessional, particularly for a teacher of the caliber you describe.

9

@JustOneDad How would the GC office do the submission work? Is it okay for the teacher to share his letter with the GC then allow them to contact the admissions offices?

10

I don’t see why not, but I’d be a little surprised if the teacher doesn’t want to fix it herself. It would seem odd for her to dump her mistakes on colleagues.

11

@JustOneDad I would think they’d want to fix it, but I feel like they might have a “it is what it is” attitude, or who “it’s not a big deal” sort of thing. I think I’ll try anyways.

12

They know it’s a big deal. Particularly for the affected student (you).

13

l

14

Sorry this is off topic, but why do you keep referring to your counselor and teacher as s/he? Do you not know whether they are male or female? Just curious.