<p>One of my daughters used an English teacher for a rec (common app) and her favorite Bio teacher, who didn't use it. She was older and more comfortable doing it by hand. She had her for 2 years and she was a great teacher. We gave her all the stamped, addressed envelopes in mid-December and she said she mailed them by break. Four of the seven schools have written my daughter or she saw online, that her rec was missing. One school said it was there at first, but realized it was a third rec from a masters student she worked for.
I have no idea what happened, but I suggested she ask if she can have her teacher fax them or we can rush-mail it if she will seal them with her signiture. She is very stressed out,especially when her high-reach, said to fax it ASAP and another said they would only accept mail because of privacy. </p>
<p>Anyone else have this happen, it is strange that mailing them early, was a problem, and that more than 1 college has them missing. </p>
<p>Thanks for any advice.</p>
<p>My S’s recs were uploaded via the Common Application by his teacher and counselor so we didn’t have anything mailed. It’s odd that some of your D’s schools got it and others didn’t, but all you can do is get them there now as fast as possible. Thank goodness the schools notified your D that the rec was missing instead of ignoring it. I’m sure though that this is something that happens occasionally (missing recs) and they’re accustomed to dealing with it.</p>
<p>Can you confirm that the other three schools do have the rec, or are you uncertain about those as well? If those three do have it, you can be pretty sure the teacher did send the recs out. Recs that are sent out do go missing because of the large volume of mail that arrives in admission offices this time of year. </p>
<p>My older S applied to one college ED and one EA. Both teachers who submitted recs to those two colleges did it by regular mail. Each college was missing one rec, but it was a different teacher in each instance! Those recs never did show up, but S was accepted by his ED school anyway, and he withdrew the other app. So, these things do happen.</p>
<p>My only advice to you and your D is to try not to let this stress you out, and to just take the steps necessary to get the rec to these colleges by whatever means the college requests. It’s definitely a pain, but it will not affect your D’s chances.</p>
<p>I do wonder about the 3 schools, she did send that third rec to a few that said they would like another if possible, the others, she didn’t. So…they might be seeing 2 recs but not looking at who sent it. Some schools admitted they just don’t have the time to personally check each packet, so I suggested to her to just resend them to those schools too. It is perplexing and I know, although she will feel funny talking to the teacher about it, she shouldn’t blame her, although sometimes you initially “blame” the cause of your angst.</p>
<p>Well, it is possible that the teacher inadvertently failed to mail the recs out. For example, she may have put them in a tote bag to take to the post office, then as she was about to leave the house, a very important phone call distracted her. The recs may still be sitting in that tote bag somewhere in her house. I know if I were in your situation, I would wonder if something like that happened.</p>
<p>But more likely than not, they are just missing somewhere in the admissions offices. In any case, you may never find out, so you might as well assume that’s the case!</p>
<p>It takes a while for the colleges to process all the mail they received after the new year and sometimes even longer to update the online system to reflect all the mail received. Sounds like you’ll have to check with all of them to see if the recommendation made it.</p>
<p>I would definitely talk to the teacher and get a bead on when she actually mailed the recommendations. Tell her that some schools seem to have mis-filed them and then arrange for rush mailing. I would hand deliver them to the post office myself. </p>
<p>I personally would do a little helicoptering on the faxing the rec to the high-reach school. At our school, the principal’s secretary does the faxing. I would let her know what was going on, hand deliver the teacher’s rec to the secretary and watch while she faxed it. </p>
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<p>Actually, I think that giving a teacher the envelopes in mid December is LATE, not early. Early is giving the teachers the stuff in October. </p>
<p>At our school, if a teacher puts a piece of mail in the school mail drop (instead of putting it directly into an off campus mail box), the mail goes to the district offices where it is processed and then put in the mail. If a teacher put a letter into a school mail drop right before the break, the mail would sit at the district office all during the holidays since the district offices are closed. Then the district office would have to slog through the backlog after school resumed until finally the letters would have been mailed. Could have been something like this happened to delay your D’s recs.</p>
<p>She said she mailed them by the second week of December, maybe a little earlier, and got them 1st week. I asked my husband since he made the envelopes. She did mail one EA seperately, much earlier and that got there. She asked how the school mailed and someone actually took the mail from the office out to the PO or mail drop. She thought her teacher mailed them off school property though, but will check today. My dad worked for the post office for years and of course I would hear about damaged mail, big lots of invitations that got lost of left on a truck, but that is not common.
I might also suggest this morning that she ask her GC to call or email that it wasn’t her fault and any recs would be rushed. Might not help, but it can’t hurt either. I would pay the extra postage if her teacher would just seal them. </p>
<p>As an “early is best” type of person, I agree with you, but some parents tell me early things are lost also, sometimes because the app comes much later, with so much volume, it’s hard, but using the common app is much easier if possible.</p>
<p>My son called and said he had his one of his grad school prospects email they don’t have his transcript. That was sent Dec.4th by his school and now he has to rush it again although his business office said it was received. Things get lost but yesterday it seemed overwhelming.</p>