HELP : Stupid letter of recommendations problem, please help.

Applying to College
1

First of all, thank you CC for the wonderful resources you’ve provided. It helps a lot for an overseas student who has no one to rely on for college admissions and tests.

To be honest, this is pretty embarrassing.
I need help on a stupid/funny problem I’m having, I’ll try to be clear and concise.

Situation : I’m applying to some Ivy leagues in which they require 2 mandatory letter of recommendations.

Trouble : My 2nd teacher - who is a non-English speaking math teacher - took my English teacher’s letter and copy pasted it into her letter of recommendation ( with the added difference of “Math” Teacher on the letter) because she didn’t know anything about letter of recommendations.

What I need help with :

  • Should I contact the Admissions Office ?
  • If yes, what should I tell them / How should I explain it to them ?
    -Tell me, is there even a chance that they would be willing to give me a chance ? No matter how low the chances are, please tell me whether I have one or not.
  • Where should I send this … silly inquiry ? There is a lot of emails for one college alone.
  • Anything else I should think of ? I’m also inexperienced in writing emails, never touched them in my rural high school life.

I have applied to Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Trinity College.

Please help ! Sorry if my English is confusing and thank you for your time !

2

*P.S if it helps, I applied through the Common Application.

3

Colleges fully know that some Teacher rec letters are utter failures. Don’t worry about this fact – colleges are understanding of this because it happens all the time. If you can get another letter from someone else, do so and submit it via email. The colleges may read it. Regardless, they’ll just omit that poor rec letter and evaluate you based on the other items in your folder.

Have a look here for rec letter writing suggestions for teachers:
http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/writingrecs

4

Thank you for the quick reply !
I see I have my chances, I’ll try to arrange a quick new letter soon.

Do you have any idea which admission email should I email to ? I’m really a clueless country bumpkin boy here.

I know it would be cruel to ask for this but, can you please give me an example ? Such as where should I send for Harvard ? (Sorry, Google just can’t help me with my uncertainty right now)
I’ll continue on my own for the other colleges based on that.

I’ll pass the rec letter writing suggestion page to my teachers, I saw these before but I never gave them this.
Thank you very much!