Letters of reference questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of British Columbia
1

I entered the information of my recommenders into the application, but have they say that they have not received anything yet, and it has been several days now.

Additionally, on the application, it says that one recommender is required to “be able to speak to one of the activities / experiences described in one of your long-answer responses.” What exactly does this mean? Do they just need to be able to say I have done it, or do they actually need to be able to talk about my experience in the activity? One of my recommenders claims to be able to do this (despite not having received any information about what she has to provide) based solely on the limited description from the application site, but my activities (mainly leading clubs, independent activities, and open source contributoons) do not involve her or anyone who can write references so I’m not sure. Also, my high school assigns recommenders and doesn’t let me choose, so I can’t ask other teachers.

What do I need to do?

2

I think that you just need to relax. Make sure that you have completed the steps that you need to complete, and then give everyone else some time to get their part done.

UBC is a very big university that gets a lot of applications. Their admissions staff is very busy right now, and is dealing with COVID also. It might take a while for things to show up on their web site. It sounds like one of your recommenders feels comfortable verifying that you really have done what you said you did.

I am assuming that your high school has teachers and guidance counselors writing recommendations. They will be very familiar with what is needed in recommendations. Your teachers and guidance counselor do this every year for many students.

3

OK, thanks. I should be able to continue my application normally. But shouldn’t emails to the recommenders be automated? They were automated everywhere else I applied.