Application horror

[Chieka]

I just found out that one of my primary references hadn't sent my letters. He finally did today, but I submitted secondary apps a while ago, so I am a little upset.

Also, several of the schools that I applied to had a deadline, which he has missed. He has offered to fax the letters to the schools with an explanation of his lateness. So, I'm now going to look for the schools' fax numbers.

Should I also contact the schools, especially those with deadlines that he's missed? How should I go about it? Email? Phone?

Do you think they'll make any special accommodations for me? To my credit, I gave my referees plenty of time and stressed the importance of early submission. I really don't know what to do now. I really appreciate any advice you can give me.

Thanks.

C.

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[Megalofyia]

If you call the admissions offices of those schools they can give you the fax numbers. If it were me I'd call and explain the situation and ask for the fax number at the same time. That way I wouldn't have to wait for a reply to an e-mail and I could talk to a person.

 

[Tweetie_bird]

I am sorry to hear about this.

Here's what you can do. Go to your boss and say to him, "I know that you have been busy and that has delayed your LOR to my schools significantly. I am worried that schools will count this tardiness against me and I may not get in because I have missed a few deadlines. Is there anything you can do for me to rectify this situation?"

If he looks clueless, carry on, "Perhaps you can add something in the letter about reasons for your letter being late. At least schools will be able to look at me in a more positive light."

How's that?

And here is a list of the schools and their fax/emails/addresses sorted by state. Good luck and let us know how it works out!!

http://www.aamc.org/meded/medschls/admissions.htm

 

[Tweetie_bird]

PS: another idea:::

make sure you don't call the admissions office to discuss if things are "okay." What a secretary might tell you is NOT necessarily what an Ad Com might feel. To an Ad Com, you might just appear as a person who was irresponsible and late. Instead, I would really urge to you to either email/fax them the required papers.

Note: you can't simply FAX an LOR because of confidential issues. It has to go straight through your LOR writer's office (with signature on back across the flap) OR through your letter service at your school.

Also note that EVERYTHING needs to be in writing. That way, whatever correspondence you send to them is surely going to be included in your file that the Ad Coms will read. Geddit?

Cheer up. Work hard and smart. Things will work out soon.

 

[Megalofyia]

What if Chieka had the person writing the LOR fax/email/or call the schools to explain instead of her. That way it takes the idea of being irresponcible off of Chieka.

 

[Tweetie_bird]

Originally posted by Megalofyia
What if Chieka had the person writing the LOR fax/email/or call the schools to explain instead of her. That way it takes the idea of being irresponcible off of Chieka.

true, but I have two concerns with that--

1. if person A loses time and makes your application significantly late, would you trust the person to do more of your work for you? if it were me (and I was in her situation early this year), I would be much more aggressive about it.

2. person A writing the LOR might get lazy and decide to CALL the schools instead of email/fax etc. This way, it doesn't get on paper and Chieka gets screwed over again.

What I was recommending to her may take a bit more time, but it's fool proof to making sure that schools will SEE/READ that her application was late not because of her irresponsibility, but some body else's.

Just my 2c.

 

[X]

Take a deep breath first. Now do one thing. Check those dates again. I believe most schools have a deadline for the secondary but the date that other materials (letters, etc) have a separate date for them. From the ones I have seen they are in January or February. There may be some early but I doubt that is the majority of the schools. I am still sending out letters to schools. So, if there is one that you missed, just call them and see if there is a problem - I doubt there will be. In fact, just ask them if you file is complete - don't point to the letter being late. I would advise anything against asking your recommender at this point. First figure out all the other possibilities, and definitely wouldn't ask him to put somehting about that in his letter - a straight no way, don't ask, don't think about it.

That's my opinion on it. In the end, you have to figure out what works for you but be careful. You don't want to upset this guy either, he did take the time to write you a letter even if late. And I think schools understand this too.

My two cents

X

 

[owen_osh]

Do not ask your recommender to put anything in the letters about being late. That will only distract from the recommendation and hurt the credibility of the letter writer. Months from now, when everything about the late letter is forgotten, you don't want the committee to still have to be distracted by reading his excuses.

I would just have him send it ASAP. I wouldn't worry too much because I'm sure the admissions office has dealt with this situation many times. I would probably call the office and ask someone.

If you want to send something, just type a nice letter. Also, you can use the letter as an opportunity to say once again how much you want to attend X school.

 

[Medical123]

This has happened to me also. I have been calling and e-mailing a ton of admissions offices. Most have been willing to work with me on this and tell me that this situation is not at all unusual. One school even told me that they would go ahead and send my application to the committee without that letter. Another school, however, inactivated my file due to this. When I contacted the schools, I told them that I had recently discovered that one of my letters was not sent and that I wanted to rectify the situation with them. In my case, the person told me that she had sent the letters, but several schools did not receive her recommendation.

I know what you are going through right now and I hope it all works out for you.

 

[Tweetie_bird]

reading these people's advice makes me take my advice back!

I don't think you should have your LOR writer mention anything; I do think, however, that whatever correspondence you have with the school about your letter being late SHOULD be in writing. Either in a separate letter or whatever you might want. BUT MAKE IT IN WRITING.

I keep harping on about this thing because my advisor told me that it's always better to have things like "making exceptions for candidates" on file/record in case anybody questions your integrity later. I know several candidates whose application would not have been half as credible if they hadn't saved their emails/letters with schools.

 

[Chieka]

Per X's advice, I've checked the application deadlines (thanks for the link, Tweetie_bird), and it turns out that I've only missed one deadline (UCONN). So, it's not as bad as I thought.

Owen_osh, my prof has already sent a letter out with the explanation of his lateness (his idea). Actually, I think all the letters he's sent have the explanation.

He'd like to fax a copy anyway, and I thought this was a good idea so I could speed up the application process (considering most schools do rolling admissions). I'm in Canada and it can take a good two weeks for stuff to reach the States (I hate Canada Post ).

Anyhow, thanks for your advice. I've contacted a friend at UCONN; hopefully he can help further.

C.

 

[DoubleDoctor]

I actually had to have one of my LOR people fax a copy of his letter because it was taking so long to get through the university mail system and it was in danger of not arriving by my interview date. They had no problem accepting this faxed copy (faxed by his secretary from his office fax) until the hard copy arrived. As it turned out they had received it original by the time I interviewed but we cut it kinda close because it got caught up in the bowels of hell known as the mail center. Good luck!!!

 

[streetdoc]

Just wanted to let you know this is a constant struggle of mine too. admissions people have told me it is not uncommon and they all worked with me on the problem. i've only got to get 2 more letter from them (this happens to be my committee that is slower than christmas!!!). my emails and reminders seem to fall on deaf ears...it doesn't seem fair that the student has to be stressed over a letter from their college.
streetdoc