Hello College Confidential, this is my first post.
I had a question regarding due dates and the actual timing of the common application being completed.
If I fill out every piece of information required for the common application, say today, and say the application is due tomorrow, then does the application wait until my academic evaluators (recommenders) write and submit their reccomendations to be considered done, or is the application considered complete but wait for the evaluators to send their information?
Anyone who has an experience that can verify this or knows for sure would be greatly appreciated.
Also, when a school lists a due date, do they generally mean that the application must be submitted before that date or no later than that date?
Basically, am I going to miss a due date if a teacher is slow in writing recommendations?
Very possibly.
But know that, as a group, we’re a group of professionals who behave professionally. So if you give us the opportunity to do our job, we’ll do it.
I’ve already submitted the recommendations I was asked to write for the class of 2016.
Have you requested yours yet? (I’m kind of hoping that you didn’t mean “tomorrow” literally, and that you’re a Junior starting the process.)
The big problem with recommendation letters from the teacher standpoint is that students don’t always realize that we have lives outside of school. So if you hand me a request on Friday, and the deadline is Monday, any my niece happens to be getting married (or one of my kids is graduating, or we make a trip to the ER, or my mom needs my help, or I’ve planned a girls weekend with my daughters or my sisters), well then you have a problem.
We’re more than happy to write the letters, but you’ve got to uphold your part of the deal by giving us time to write a good letter. (If I write more than 2 at a sitting, they start to sound exactly alike. You do NOT want a generic letter!!!)
If a “teacher is slow at writing recommendations” it may very well be because he or she has 30 or 40 to write. (Last year I had 38, 40 the year before.) And I have a husband and 3 kids. And finals are coming up. And I have laundry to do this weekend, and food shopping. Any my daughter is going on an overnight class trip this weekend, so I have to hit Target to get her socks and munchies. And I REALLY need to hit the garden center and get some shrubs for the front to the house. And we still have to hire a painter for the work that was done in the house last year. And I have to get the pool opened. And I have to get an appointment for my annual mamo.
Your letter is very important, of course I get that. But so is every other thing on that list.
So ask early.
Wow, that sounds like quite a lot.
I am a transfer student, so it is unlikely that my teacher has many recommendations to write, but, believe me, I understand that they have many other things to do and that I cannot push responsibility off of myself and onto them. I’m just wondering how bad of a situation my own irresponsibility will actually lead to.
Thanks for your response
When is your app due?
If it literally is this week, then you’ve got to be prepared to ask several teachers to find one (or two) who have the free time. That may turn out to be the bigger priority-- someone who can get you A letter, as opposed to someone who, if they had the time, could get you THE letter.
To anyone who may have cared, the application was considered on time, but it was considered incomplete until the transcripts were sent. I believe they did technically consider my application, but, probably in part because I cut it so close, I was not accepted.