OKAY so I originally asked my AP chem teacher for a recommendation last year. However, my parents forced me to take him off my recommenders list VERY last minute (and he is unaware about this right now) and replace him with a different teacher because my guidance counselor said that he’s bad with deadlines. But, the other day he asked me if i still needed him to write a recommendation and i LIED and said yes (because I didn’t know what to say!) and that i wasn’t applying anywhere early (which is also a lie). I’m now rethinking things a really wish I never took him off my list and I want him to write me one for the school i’m applying early to but the deadline is in 2 weeks and its probably too late to say “OOPS i lied to you and now you have two weeks to do this!!”. I know that i could just go along with the lie and not use him for my EA school, but it is REALLy selective and I think a good recommendation from him could do a lot for my application, because he knows me a lot better than the teacher I replaced him with. I just don’t know what to do!! Jeez i’m such an idiot why did i let my parents make me take him off the list. What should I do? I feel like my acceptance to my EA school could be riding on a really accurate recommendation about me, and I’m afraid the one i replaced him with will write just a solid and slightly inaccurate rec, not a great one. help 0_0
Your GC may have warned you away from him because he actually doesn’t write helpful recommendations and not because he’s a procrastinator, but assuming the GC is just tired of nagging at him for being late, I’d go to this teacher tomorrow and apologize, but you’ve changed your mind and will be applying to X College EA. You know, it’s a lot to ask, but the deadline is in two weeks and will he be able to meet the deadline. Hopefully he won’t lie to you.
Generally speaking it is not the end of the world if a teacher recommendation arrives a little late. It’s your stuff that MUST meet the deadline. When one of my son’s recommendations went missing (one of the two EA schools he applied to), the university told him not to worry just have the teacher fax or email them the recommendation.
Just do what mathmom recommended. Your parents should have not forced you to remove him and if your GC had an issue with him, he or she should have told you up front.