<p>The teacher agreed to do the recommendation, but just hasn't done it yet! The application was due 11/1. Is this a problem?</p>
<p>Is this for colleges where teacher recs are required? if so, march somebody into the guidance office of the school (or even the principal) and let them know…</p>
<p>and call the school in question to let them know the situation…</p>
<p>imo, unacceptable…</p>
<p>Are you sure the teacher has not sent the rec in by mail instead of online? The status of mailed recs do not show up on your common app account. </p>
<p>Schools do give some leeway on deadlines for recs and school forms, but as it is now two weeks past the deadline this could be a problem. If another teacher is willing to expedite a rec for you, you might want to invite another teacher as a back up plan.</p>
<p>11/1? Wth? Meanwhile I’ve been freaking out about just getting my letter of recommendation sent today for the 11/15 deadline…
If I were you I’d <em>kindly</em> remind the teacher that your acceptance to this college depends on that letter, and offer to bring the letter to the post office if the teacher doesn’t have the time. I’d also ask her to send it as soon as possible, and tell me when she sends it.
You should also alert guidance about this, again, politely, not being rude. Just tell them you’re having issues with a letter of recommendation from such and such teacher.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone. Do you think that this is past the point of “leeway”? The guidance counselor knows, and my daughter has been reminding the teacher for the past two weeks. Last week, he said that he would do it “over the weekend”, but it is still not showing up.
He is a great teacher; he just probably doesn’t understand the situation with the deadline despite my daughter’s attempted explanations.</p>
<p>I feel like yes, at this point it’s past the “leeway” point. If rec’s aren’t requried, they’ll probably just view the application with no letters.</p>
<p>Many schools are understanding if you communicate with them. You should have your daughter get on the phone to the school today to discuss the matter. If the GC can be on the call with her, that will add credibility.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone. I spoke to the GC after your posts and asked if he could get the teacher to write it. The GC went up to the teacher’s classroom when the teacher had a free period, and saw the teacher doing the recommendation right then! He was about to submit it in another five minutes. When the GC called to tell me this, I asked if he thought it was a good idea to contact the college, and he said that he didn’t think that it was necessary; they expect some recommendations to come in late. This GC is totally swamped because he has all of the seniors; and it was already so nice of him to approach the teacher; I do not think that my daughter should tax him anymore right now. What do you think?</p>
<p>Gosh! I think the LOR won’t be very good. If the teacher was hurriedly writing something just because you complained, that probably doesn’t bode too well for your child. Anyone else who can quickly send a supplementary LOR to the school?</p>
<p>levirm: given that this is an ED school, and everything was supposedly supposed to be submitted by Nov 1st, I wholeheartedly disagree (with respect, of course) with your son’s GC; in fact if the school (ED) in question also has EA (which some do), it is possible that your son’s app was already read or, at least, reviewed once already without the rec…do you really want to take the chance?..</p>
<p>I don’t know; maybe it’s just me…this was out of your control; but someone should call to handle “damage control”…</p>
<p>Levirm, like the others said, I disagree with the GC. What’s the harm in a phone call, anyway? If the college reviewed the application already, then it’s quite possible they just didn’t view it. There WAS a deadline, and the letter was submitted more than 2 weeks late. A phone call from the student explaining WHY certainly can’t make the situation any worse.</p>
<p>I think that the teacher wrote a good recommendation, because he later emailed me and apologized, and then added information about how well my daughter is doing in his class, and saying that he would be happy to do more recommendations if my daughter needed them for schools that do not use the common app.
Thanks for all of your advice! If my daughter does email or call, what do you think that she should say now that the recommendation is in? The school did get a record number of ED applications (they do not have EA; it has been reported that they received over 1300 ED applications), so it is possible that they just waited to review it until everything was in. Could they have read them all in just two weeks? One possibility is to wait until she gets her SAT subject test score report from October, and then email the admissions officer with that score saying that she will have it sent by College Board also, and also mention the late recommendation. (This is really an “extra” score.) Or, she could just act as if everything is normal with the recommendation. It’s hard to know how aggressive to be, or what to say!</p>
<p>I think it will be ok, depending on the school. I know when my son applied EA three years ago, after a couple of weeks, they send out letters to everyone telling them if any part of thier application was missing, and telling them to try and get it together.</p>
<p>So, the school is getting all this paperwork from everyone. It takes time to sort it all. As long as the letter is there before the school needs it to make a decision, then all is ok, because they know you have no control over it. </p>
<p>I would call the school, if only for peace of mind. It is not a problem to call them, though your daughter should do it. This will not be viewed as an agressive act. It will probably be handled by a clerical worker.</p>