If a teacher recommendation letter for college is late, am I screwed?
Ok. I asked my AP Biology teacher a month and a half ago to write me a college recommendation letter for the four private colleges I’m applying to (Columbia, Cornell, Stanford, Johns Hopkins). He agreed. Over the course of a month, I’ve been checking up on my application status at Columbia’s online application and saw that my teacher still hadn’t submitted the letter yet. The day before winter break, I went to remind him.
I checked again every day since the beginning of winter break, and the letter still hasn’t been submitted. There should be NO waiting period between the time he submitted the letter to the time it’s registered in my status because all of the recommendations for Columbia are submitted online.
My question: Is there a chance that, when I get back from winter break and have a talk with my teacher, that his recommendation letter will still be accepted? Or am I royally screwed in my application because of one letter?
Tagged with: ap biology • application status • biology teacher • college recommendation letter • columbia • cornell • johns hopkins • month and a half • private colleges • stanford • waiting period • winter break
Filed under: Biology Courses Online
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That’s horrible; I am SO sorry for you! First of all, if you can, I would check with the Admissions Office at Columbia to make sure that their online information is accurate. Has the deadline passed already, or do you have a chance to get someone else to fill in for him? If so, I would have someone do that immediately, and I might not tell him, so that he still writes you the letter as an additional recommendation. He really owes you big time! The problem you have here is that these are obviously outstanding universities who don’t have to bend to any individual applicant’s problems, because they have plenty of other outstanding applicants. If you were in a strong position as a phenomenal applicant at a small, private college, they might give you more leeway. I hope, for your sake, that your other letters were really strong (as I recall, most schools ask for "up to" a certain number of letters, so while they may not count his, they will not throw out your application, right?).
Assuming your teacher wasn’t in a terrible accident over the break, and that the letters in fact did NOT get written, I would let him know how disappointed you were (and I would let your counselor know that this happened). Helping students achieve their goals is a big part of what teachers are supposed to do, not just get up in front of a classroom and lecture, and if they are unreliable in that manner, their job performance is seriously lacking.