My letters of reccomendation were going to be the strongest part of my application. I ended up asking way too many teachers (6) to write me these letters over the summer and I complied a detailed list of which letter I wanted to go to which school. At first I thought that would be up to me to decide but my school uses Naviance and apparently my teachers are the ones who select what goes where. I specifically told each teacher about where to send their letters but not one but two of them completely messed up and sent them to every school on my list. These two teachers offered to write me letters so I agreed but despite being super nice, they’re both rather incompatant and I was just going to send their reccomendations to safety schools. The two teachers that told me that I was one of their favorite students ever and that are both awesome writers aren’t going to be able to submit their letters now. I feel like the strongest part of my application became my weakest. My counselor told me that once a teacher pressed submit, it was irreversable. I know you can ask teachers to send letts by mail but I heard from a few people that it makes you look really bad. I’m already decreasing my chances of getting into colege by contacting each school individually to request a non-custodial CSS profile waiver. I feel like I’ve worked so hard throughout all of high school and now one silly misunderstanding is really going to hurt my chances of being admitted into my top choice schools.
Has this happened to anyone else? What did you do?
(Sorry for typos. I’m quickly typing this out on my phone).
I’d say you over-thought this, and caused yourself a problem. Why not get 2 great letters and use them everywhere? If you have talked to your GC, then it seems like a done deal.
If a school says in their website they will accept extra letters, see if you can send the best one by snail mail.
At our HS the counselors strongly advise the students to ask only two teachers to send to all their schools. Asking so many teachers creates extra work for more teachers.
I’m guessing this is probably typical at your school as well, and the reason the teachers sent to all the schools. They are probably used to doing so.
Some schools allow an extra letter. You can do it electronically through the Common App. A direct email link will be sent to the teacher and they can upload the letter. I would check that the other teacher is willing to do so.
Some of the schools I’m applying to ask for a math or science teacher in addition to a humanities/English teacher. Also, one of the schools I’m applying to allows up to five letters of reccomendation. In retrospect, I realize that I only should have asked for two letters but at the time, I didn’t even know where I was applying and no one warned me about this. What’s done is done. Now I want to figure out how to fix it.
Why ask two teachers that you think are “both rather incompatant?” They were nice enough to give you recommendations. I also think you’re making this a bigger deal than it is. Sure, things didn’t go according to plan, but stressing about this one part of your application will only make it worse.
So for the schools that require both, you have to get the missing one to them. Even if they say only 2, have the 3rd one snail mailed to them if it can’t be done via Naviance.
There is a lesson for you in this – you should have said, “I think I have already asked for the recommendations I need. But I will let you know if there is some issue with them. Thank you for offering!” when you were offered recommendations beyond the first couple you knew you needed and wanted.
@Hamlin, this is a legitimate concern. Every part of the app is important. The OP just has to clean it up as best she can now.
@Hamlon I didn’t ask, they offered. And rather forcibly too. Plus I thought I would need 5 letters for one school and have total control over which letter goes where.
Okay. Thanks for your help guys! I wish there was more I could do but I’m just going to have to deal with it. I know I made a mistake but so did my teachers so it doesn’t make sense to blame anyone at this point.
Don’t blame the teachers. You created a confusing situation by requesting so many recommendations. It isn’t surprising that something got sent to the wrong place. Just move forward and be more careful in the future.
Ask your GC to contact schools in question and submit another LOR in place of the one already in the system. This is what GC told my DD she will be doing. She said this is a common procedure.
If your app is not submitted, you can delete the recommenders altogether. Although I’m not sure if that’ll work for the teachers. We had an additional recommender on my son’s RD Cornell app, which we have not submitted yet. She put the wrong major on the letter. We deleted her from the common app and she submitted her letter through a direct link on their site. Might be worth checking into. If the apps are submitted there’s probably nothing you can do.
@AnneKatherine , I am sorry that happened to you, and it is worrisome. I agree with others who suggest snail mail. For any other students who see this thread, be careful to avoid this kind of situation. I understand that ad coms don’t like to see too many supplements. My daughter had three extra recs she wanted incorporated into her application. She didn’t want to submit a lot of supplemental stuff. Her guidance counselor took the most important points out of the extra recs and made them part of her letter. One rec was a commendation for her service project, another was from her violin teacher of 8 years, and the third was from a prof at a prestigious college with whom she did a summer course. Each had some importance, and hopefully the main points of those recs will be conveyed in her counselor’s letter.
I am sure everything will work out for you as it is supposed to. Try not to worry too much, as no doubt the teachers said good things about you. Best of luck.
The response to "can I write you letter of recommendation? is “Oh, how very kind. But I’ve already gotten ones from Mrs. Smith and Mr. Jones. But thanks so much for offering.”
Why on earth did you think you needed 5 letters? I’ve never seen anywhere that number requested by anyone.
And why would you want a letter from a “rather incompatant” letter to go anywhere??
Sorry, this situation is of your own making.
And it’s done now, so don’t sweat it. If they offered, then “incompatant” or not you know they said good things about you.
I don’t agree that you have to suck it up and live with it. Contact the schools that got these letter and tell them that they were submitted by mistake. Let them know that the correct letters are being sent to them by Teacher X and Teacher Y and you would appreciate it if they would update your application accordingly.
Then give Teachers X and Y envelopes that have been addressed to the schools to which their letters of rec need to go. Print out the teacher evaluation forms and fill in all the ‘name and address of the school’ stuff on the top so they don’t have to do this themselves. Then all they have to do is sign their names, check the boxes, and attach the letter.
If you need Teachers X and Z to send letters to a few of the schools, instead of X and Y, then just give those teachers the correct envelopes with the forms filled out.
Will this work in every case? Perhaps not - but most schools want you to put your best foot forward and if there is an error here, there is no reason not to try to fix it.
I agree that you cannot fault the teachers. Remember you are not the only recommendation they are writing and it is no reasonable to expect teacher to keep a specific checklist on where to send letters for multiple students – it is not unreasonable to assume that you wold want their letter sent everywhere. Hopefully it won’t hurt your applications and lesson learned.
