<p>Not sure how or if to approach this situation.</p>
<p>My D was applying to some scholarships for a school she had applied to (the school didn't automatically consider you for their scholarships, you need to do a separate application.)</p>
<p>The deadline is midnight tonight, and only one of her letters of recommendation had shown up. The teacher had let D know that she had sent it in, but it looks like the teacher got mixed up and sent in the wrong one. (The teacher has written one letter, but it is being submitted to several scholarship app sites. This one school actually has 2 separate scholarship apps, one for a general scholarship, one for the major.)</p>
<p>My D does not have a private phone number for the teacher, so there is no way to reach her until Monday.</p>
<p>I'm advising my D to go ahead and submit the app, minus the 2nd letter of recommendation. It seems that it is better to submit as incomplete, rather than not submit at all.</p>
<p>My question is: should D contact the school on Monday and explain the situation and see if the teacher can still send in the letter? D is definitely going to talk to the teacher on Monday and maybe the teacher will offer to call on D's behalf.</p>
<p>In any case, do you think there is a chance that the school might reconsider this is an exception? I realize that schools have deadlines, and that they have every right to say that there are no exceptions, and she is out of luck. If that is the case, I completely understand. </p>
<p>Any thoughts on whether D should follow up with school, or just see this as lesson learned?</p>
<p>You should be fine, I wouldn’t stress over this. Definitely submit the application. Be sure to contact the school and inform them of the teachers failure in sending the recommendation on time.</p>
<p>What is important is for your daughter to submit her application on time. Most schools will give some leeway for other supporting documents. I would contact the school on Mon to let them know what happened and have the teacher submit the LOR as soon as possible.</p>
<p>This kind of stuff drives me BATTY and I’m so sorry for your angst over this.</p>
<p>Personally, when I need to rely on other people to do something like this, I give them a deadline that is before the actual deadline. I know that enough people slack off and blow off things (plus, real situations / dilemmas happen) that it’s better for my peace of mind if the person thinks she only has til December 1 instead of December 15 to get it all done.</p>
<p>I think the other thing is how to (nicely) get the message across to the teacher that she really is screwing with other people’s important deadlines. There are ways of making her feel guilty while pouring sugar on it, and I’d suggest using them.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting. Neither D or I are really stressing over this, but it is good to have some insight about what to do.</p>
<p>She went ahead and submitted with only one LOR and will follow up on Monday. </p>
<p>She did give the recommenders more lead time for the other scholarship apps, but this one was due much sooner than others. And to be fair, my D was a bit late in getting the ball rolling on her scholarship apps. </p>
<p>As I said, if the school does deny her the second LOR, I will completely understand. Sometimes the more important thing is for kids to learn the hard way in life.</p>
<p>^I’m not sure I get what lesson it is that she’s learning? That other people don’t always follow up on things they are supposed to do? That she should be conscientious about deadlines if she is ever asked to write LOR’s? That she should have asked 3 people just in case someone forgot or didn’t bother? That there’s only so much you actually have control over?</p>
<p>Hopefully, the school allows some time for supporting documents and it won’t end up being an issue :)</p>
<p>One note: what do you mean, exactly, that D does not have the teacher’s phone number? Has she tried to look the teacher’s home number up in the phone book or through directory assistance? Kids of today don’t always realize the existence of these resources.</p>
<p>Absolutely submitting the application ‘as-is’ was the correct thing to do. I would still try to contact the teacher via her email if your DD hasn’t done so. I know my kids teachers check their email on the weekends. They don’t always respond over the weekend for mundane things that can be addressed on Monday, but I do know they read it.</p>
<p>As others have suggested I would have your DD follow up with her tomorrow. Remind her that it is completely appropriate for her to do so and that although she should remain polite, she is not bothering the teacher and should not accept a brush off.</p>
<p>Careful. A few classmates got into some trouble with school admins because they did this for a teacher who refused to have her home# listed or to give it out. </p>
<p>This was not only because it was considered rude among many to call up teachers during his/her off hours without getting their number and the permission to call them beforehand, but in that teacher’s case, she was understandably freaked because she had been a recent stalking victim and was trying to protect herself.</p>
<p>My only reason for the statement about D possibly learning a lesson, is because the school is well within their rights to not allow any late submittals. </p>
<p>Yes, the teacher messed up (and it was an honest mistake, as the teacher submitted to the wrong scholarship site for the Dec 15 deadline), but D did have plenty of time to get this going, and she waited until late Nov to ask for LOR, when it was due Dec 15.</p>
<p>Sometimes it is OK for a school to hold firm. They probably get thousands of scholarship applications, and there has to be some criteria for making a decision. Being late, even if the reason is OK, is still late. That is the way the ball bounces sometimes.</p>
<p>All that being said, D has emailed the teacher and will definitely talk to her on Monday. The teacher had actually written and sent D the LOR that she was submitting, but the teacher had to be the one to submit it to the online scholarship app site.</p>
<p>“I know my kids teachers check their email on the weekends. They don’t always respond over the weekend for mundane things that can be addressed on Monday, but I do know they read it.”</p>
<p>That’s something else that annoys me. It’s standard practice in my business world that you check email at nights / weekends and respond to keep things moving. It feels very unprofessional to “go dark” for a weekend.</p>
<p>That’s may be the cultural norms within your business which effectively expects its professionals to be available 24/7, but not applicable with all professions…especially outside the US. </p>
<p>This very mentality is regarded as a negative among many cultures where there’s still an expectation that one is genuinely entitled to have one’s “off-time” as genuinely “off” and allowing 24/7 availability is not only exploitative, but also unhealthy for the individual professional and his/her family/community.</p>
<p>cobrat - why do you always need to address cultural differences. Just FYI - most Asians are more anal about checking their emails than Americans. My husband’s European colleagues are on call at all hours. </p>
<p>Now, I wouldn’t expect most teachers to check their emails on weekends because I just don’t think they are paid enough to do that, but most of my kids’ did and I was very appreciative of their dedications.</p>
<p>I wasn’t addressing other cultures. I was addressing the US. Teachers quite rightly want to be thought of as professionals, and one facet of the professional world in 2012/2013 is that you check email and respond.</p>
<p>As a person who does check e-mail over the weekend, I have received a request for information (transcripts, recommendation letters, secondary report) that was time stamped at 11:45 pm last night. </p>
<p>What would you say that I do with this information, since the things I need to send in to the school are at my work computer and I cannot access my network from my home PC?</p>
<p>Are you saying that I should be acting on this immediately? NOT. I will act on it when I am at school tomorrow.</p>
<p>However, there were things that I read that I was able to respond to and did so accordingly.</p>
<p>While you may not like cobrat’s answer (and it is one of the rare occasions that I agree with him) it is against the DOE policy to give out your home number, personal e-mail of to “friend” students on your personal FB as they are all things that can put a letter in your file or lead up to your termination (if your school has a FB page, you can post and speak with them through there). </p>
<p>I do not talk to students or their parents from my home (I am in at 7 am and I usually do not leave until 5. I catch parents before they leave for work, contact them at work and leave messages at home).</p>
<p>In addition, they will not be compensated for any work that they do at home and they are not obligated to write recommendation letters. We have a teacher who has already told all of his students that he will not be writing letters this year. He is perfectly in his right to do so and the principal cannot make him (without the teacher having grounds to file a grievance).</p>
<p>If her phone number is listed in the phone book, it’s perfectly OK to call her, as long as it’s not late at night. I wouldn’t try to get an unlisted number, of course, but if it’s in the phone book, it’s available to the general public.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t check business e-mail on the weekend.</p>
<p>It is not unreasonable for teachers to not check email on the weekend, or to not respond to it. Yes, in some businesses, employees are “on call” 24/7, and do check their email and voicemail regularly throughout the day. But there are plenty of us who do not.</p>
<p>In my business, I have a business email address that I cannot access at home, because those emails may contain sensitive client information. Incidentally, I can’t access my home email while at worth either - again to protect client information. DH can access his work email at home, but only on his work laptop through a virtual private network. When he is on vacation, it is the responsibility of his coworkers to handle business in his absence. </p>
<p>While I like the fact that my kids can reach me on my cell phone when I’m not home, I don’t give that out, except as an emergency contact, precisely because I choose not to be on call. My parents did not have a cell phone when I was in school, and the school managed to contact them when necessary, the same can still be done.</p>
<p>If the LOR can be sent within 24 hours of the deadline, and the application itself is on time, you will probably be fine. The committee needs time to review all the material sent by all the applicants, so this should not create an undue delay. That said, the scholarship committee is within its right to say the application was not complete in time. The fact that today is a Sunday, not a business day, could also play a role.</p>
<p>I would contact them to let them know the issue, and ask the teacher to send the LOR as soon as possible in the morning. Again, worst case they say too late, but they may be forgiving if the student has made the effort to get her part done, and to follow up tot he best of her ability.</p>
<p>Not ALL professionals are expected to reply immediately during the weekend or in the evenings. At some previous employers in the Boston area, we were expected to put in 100% during our working hours, but once we’re off for the evenings/weekends, we were genuinely off during those hours. </p>
<p>One of the prices of working in a 24/7 regional business culture like NYC or receiving that six figure or greater salary as a i-banker, business consultant, or biglaw attorney is that your employer effectively owns all of your time both on and off of work. </p>
<p>No teacher I know of signs up for that…especially not for the salary they’re paid. </p>
<p>Especially considering it is a pittance not only for the type of work they do/crap they have to deal with from kids/parents/admins/politicians.</p>
<p>I would not expect the teacher to be checking email during the weekend</p>
<p>I have had jobs where I was online practically 24 hours a day due to working with different time zones, but am so thankful now I don’t have a job that requires that any longer.</p>
<p>Excellent post #12, cobrat. Our culture has gotten out of controll with being always on. Apparently more than 70% of folks in the US sleep w their cell phones within reach at night even.</p>
<p>I dont think teachers expect to receive calls during evenings or weekends. I would email a teacher after hours but would not call unless had been specifically invited to do so.</p>