<p>I get that a teacher is doing a favor when writing a rec letter. However, many colleges REQUIRE rec letters. It’s a favor but it’s also part of the job, IMO.</p>
<p>This actually happened to me, when the my teacher last year (who left for another school) just ignored our reminders (even though she said yes when we asked in the spring) and screwed over at least 6 of us. We all asked teachers that particularly liked us this year and explained the situation, and they agreed. </p>
As a teacher and a mother, I think there is likely more to the story. I’ve written dozens if not hundreds of LOR for students, and of course it is always best (I insist explicitly) to receive a list of activities, transcript, and have a sit-down meeting about the letter and what kind of wonderful things I can say.
I remind all of my juniors each year that they want to be asking teachers who write well and know and love them, and that it is a favor (uncompensated). BTW someone said that it is “part of the job” - that is inaccurate. It is totally voluntary and we do it because we love the students, on our own time.
In my 18 years (so far) of teaching, there was one student whom I told at the end of his junior year, that in spite of my having taught him both 9th and 11th grade science, that I would not write him a LOR. (A lot of students assume that you will write for them if they have you twice, and indeed, he had assumed I would.) I had caught him breaking into the Chem lab and that was the last straw. He had previously laughed at a Track teammate who slipped in the snow instead of helping the guy up, and teased someone else publicly for I can’t remember what, at this point. That kid had plenty of time to find someone else, I guess. But there can be very good reasons for a teacher to say, “I won’t recommend you”.
And that’s not even considering what might or might not be going on in the teacher’s life.
WRT “ratemyteacher.com” - really? That’s your solution? And if it were in good faith, I’d expect you to suggest a rating that included, “backed out of writing my LOR unfortunately, but was a good classroom teacher since I asked her in the first place” which it doesn’t sound like you had planned…
It is possible that there is more to the story, on both sides (extenuating circumstances on the teacher’s part, or some sort of error on the student’s part), but there is no possible way to know if that is true. All we know is what OP has told us, and we have to go with it. If you’re not willing to do that, don’t respond to the thread.
I tend to believe that although the teacher was doing OP a favor by agreeing to write a LOR, it would have been nice for her to give OP a little more notice in saying that she couldn’t do it, or at least provide a reason. And while I have a great respect for teachers, I agree that writing rec letters is, to some degree part of their job. It’s certainly not required, but if you are a high school teacher, especially for juniors and seniors, you should expect LOR requests. If, for whatever reason, you can’t/don’t want to write LORs (which is fine), you should tell students that when they ask - NOT four days before the CA is due for many colleges.
And, @xiggi, who knows if repeatedly asking would have helped. Maybe the teacher still would have said it was fine and that she could write the rec even if the OP had asked and been asking. I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’s “obvious” that he wouldn’t be in this situation if he had been checking in. There are simply too many variables in this situation for speculation to be useful.
Also, I interpreted sweetcornundrum’s reference to leaving a bad review on ratemyteacher as a joke, and I’m not sure why so many people got upset about it. I don’t think too many people consider that website to be a very good judge of character, or even teaching ability. Most of the reviews are written by bitter students who were given poor grades - can’t imagine there’s any bias there. If you do choose to write review for that teacher though, in addition to any positive comments you may leave, I don’t think it would be horrible to note that she accepted a rec request and then reneged just a few days before it was due. That’s the truth, and if I were a student looking for a recommender, it’s something I would want to know about.
OP, if you have not already done so, I would reach out to three or four of your teachers (the ones who you think will be most receptive to your request). Tell them that due to circumstances beyond your control, you are left without a needed LOR at this very late date, and if they could do you a huge favor and write an LOR for you, you would be incredibly grateful. If that’s not doable for them, you completely understand, and wish them a happy rest of winter break. Hopefully at least one will take pity on you and agree to write it.
OP, if you have given the straight story, I would also let your GC know that this happened if you haven’t already.