<p>Of the colleges where I can check my app status online, <em>all</em> of them have gotten every required form (school report, transcript, English teacher rec...) except my math teacher's rec. You can generally trust him to make deadlines, but he's also a little forgetful. I don't want to be an annoying nag--when should I check up with him to make sure he sent it? (and how do I do that diplomatically? I can't exactly say with sincerity..."well, your rec seems to have gotten lost in the mail to every single school...")</p>
<p>It’s always a good idea as the college’s deadline approaches to check with the teachers, etc. to remind them of the deadline and to ask them if they’ve sent their recc. If they haven’t, ask them if they need a new form or copies of any materials that you gave them. </p>
<p>In your case, you need to do this ASAP. It’s not being rude to do this. Your admission could depend on your making sure your app is complete.</p>
<p>If anything, ask him when he sent the recommendation, and explain to him that it still hasn’t shown up in your colleges’ tracking systems and you just want to make sure that it wasn’t lost in the mail and may just be taking a while to get there.</p>
<p>In his answer, you’ll find out whether he sent it (which I’m assuming he didn’t) without sounding like an a**. It’s a safe way to go, and if he does say “Oh, I sent it over a month ago,” then you know to resend them. Just rehearse it a few times in front of the mirror so your suspicion that it was never sent isn’t obvious.</p>