<p>After having read the 'decision date' thread I am a bit concerned. </p>
<p>My counselor recently alerted me of some mailing complications, so I called the admissions office last week to confirm my application was complete. They then informed me that one of my teacher recommendations was still not in. I had my teacher fax it in on friday, as they had advised, but I'm wondering if it's late arrival will affect my admissions chances, especially with these rumors of finalizing decisions.</p>
<p>I was under the impression that my application was complete because
I had not recieved anything to suggest that it wasn't. Does the fact that they never alerted me of the missing letter indicate disinterest in itself?</p>
<p>Again, nobody but someone in Admissions can authoritatively answer that. My <em>guess</em> is, and I have some long history of navigating bureaucracies, including college bureaucracies, and thus have some history to draw upon, is that if the missing rec was a substantive problem, you'd have heard by now. But this is only a guess and broad experience says nothing of how a situation at any one institution may play out.</p>
<p>Finally, as an aside, you may want to go to the Parents Forum and look at the now-longish thread that hasn't been posted on for a week or two called something like "101 Words Students Need to be Able to Spell Before Going to College."</p>
<p>I just bit my lip and said nothing when encountering "definately" in the Wellesley forum but here on "home turf" I will admonish you not confuse "disinterest" with "lack of interest." Indeed, often a disinterested party is the best you can hope for in the circumstances and you should be grateful any time someone isn't looking to rain on your parade any more than the next applicant's.</p>
<p>For those who haven't read the thread, there are quite a few nuggets in there worth filing away.</p>
<p>I had a lot of trouble getting one of my teacher's recs into Smith (it took three tries and a lot of emails and phone calls, oh it was joyful). And I eventually got in so I don't think it will affect your chances much if at all. I would simply get it in as soon as you can and not worry too much about it because they understand that since it's your teacher's responsibility to mail the recommendation you don't have much control, and just about everyone who applies to Smith has atleast one part of the application that doesn't get there right on time.</p>