<p>No, his Science teacher left during 3rd MP due to undisclosed reasons and they brought in a myriad of subs to finish out the year. She returned this year, but she was not a good teacher and he didn’t feel she knew him. He also emailed two other teachers who know him well, the latter being his jr year english teacher who is also his 4N6 advisor for several years, so knows his creativity and ability to express himself. Fingers crossed! BTW, he brought home the college timeline from guidance friday which says “request rec letters early”. They were NOT told this last year. </p>
<p>There may be a disconnect at the school between what the teachers feel they can comfortably accomplish and what the guidance department and/or administration think they should. When you’re not the one writing the letters, it’s easier to give a later deadline or forget that there may be limits to how many letters can reasonably be written in a short amount of time. I agree with the posters upthread who said that rec letters from a less than enthusiastic writer are probably not what you want anyway. Good luck with his English teacher. </p>
<p>I feel that’s pretty uncool on the teacher’s part, but it’s true that he should have asked for a letter earlier. When I was applying last year, I told my teachers that I was planning on asking for their recommendations in April so they’d have a heads-up. Even then, it took them <em>forever</em> to send them in (my recommendations were marked complete the day ED apps were due), meaning that your son’s teacher probably has a limit on how many he/she writes, not out of unfairness but understanding, in order to make sure that the letters sent are the best they can possibly be.</p>
<p>With that being said, it doesn’t hurt to keep on trying. Don’t be a pain, but maybe check in once a week or so to see if any spots open up. Ask a few backup teachers in case it really doesn’t work out. Also, I don’t think recommendations necessarily have to correlate with one’s choice of major–I applied as a biology major and got recommendations from my AP Chem and APUSH teachers. I never bothered to ask my biology or math teachers for one, and in the end things were fine. </p>
<p>Best of luck! </p>
<p>Unfortunately your S is in the LAST wave of requests and many teacher do limit the number of recommendations they write. Most students ask for recommendation letters in the spring of their junior year. I would take the following steps in no particular order but quickly: 1) ask the current math teacher ASAP and maybe even ask him/her if would be possible to get and incorporate some comments from the old math teacher into the letter 2) talk to the old math teacher once more and explain that a recommendation from a math teacher is required to apply to this program and apologize for the inconvenience and for not knowing that he should have asked last spring. 3) go to the school guidance counselor to see if he/she can help.persuade the old math teacher to help.</p>
<p>Thank you Coriander23 and Happy1 for your comments. The English teacher said she’d be happy to write a letter! Yay!! </p>
And he’s gotten into 5/5 schools so far - including his first choice - still waiting on 3. 
It’s eye opening to see this thread. My junior son is applying for a summer program. He asked his top two teachers on Feb 1 for recommendations and gave them an email link. One teacher did it right away but my son got a notification last week that the deadline is looming and the second recommendation had not arrived. We have missed seven days of school due to snow so the opportunity to casually mention it was not there. I had my son send a friendly email with the link and a brief summary of why he thinks he’s a good candidate. The teacher replied that he had forgotten but submitted it right away. Whew. I am thinking he should give a small thank you gift when he gets the result, good or bad. He’ll probably ask the same two next fall as they are teachers he’s had for more than one core class and he loves them both.
Spender, congrats to your son! We’ll be sure to ask for recs in spring thanks to you.
Last year, I had to write 38 letters of recommendation for Juniors. The year before it was 42.And those are the college letters, not the ones for summer programs. Each letter takes quite a bit of time, and I can’t crank out more than one or two at a sitting without them sounding the same.
A well written letter is a LOT of work. And it happens at home, over the weekends, after I’ve prepped my classes, graded tests and quizzes. I do it instead of doing laundry or the dishes, or spending time with my own kids.
My husband, who teaches Junior English, faces the same type of work load.
I’ve gotten two requests for letters recently. One I did right away. The other is still on hold, as I wait for the young man to get me the information on where the letter is going and what it’s for. It’s been a good 2 weeks, with a few reminders from me, and still I don’t have the information I need. It’s a shame, since there have been a few times in those two weeks when I had the time to write the letter if only I had known what it was for.
Sorry, the kettle was whistling and I needed tea.
My point in the previous post was this: I’m more than happy to write a letter for any kid for whom I can write a positive letter. I did have one kid ask this year, and my response to him was that of course I would be happy to write a letter if he wanted me to. But I wanted him to consider whether some other teacher would write a truthful, better letter than the one I’ll be able to write for him.
Sometimes what comes off as hesitance on the part of the teacher is a gentle nudge towards a better letter from someone else. As much as I love my kids, I’m not willing to lie for them. If another teacher can say better things than I can, I’ll generally try to nudge my kids towards that teacher.
And know that if you’re the 40th kid who requests a letter from me, it’s going to take some serious time. It’s not happening this week or next, not if you want anything more than a bland “yes, I taught him. He got 90’s” type of letter.
Last minute requests are a huge problem. As important is this letter is to you, it’s equally important to my 12 year old that I’m at her volleyball game. And it’s important to my 84 year old mom that I stop by once in a while. Your lack of planning does not, and should not, mean that my mom sits home alone on a Sunday afternoon. Or that my family goes without clean clothes, or that I don’t get the food shopping done. My life is busy too, and if something’s got to give, it’s those last minute requests.
So glad I reminded my son to ask end of junior year and even then a few were turned in after deadlines. You have to expect that if you ask in the Fall I would say. Ask the newer teacher at this point and keep fingers crossed that they’ll do it.
To the teachers writing letters, have you noticed whether first-generation-to-college and disadvantaged students tend to be later at requesting recommendation letters, perhaps because they may not be as well “plugged in” to the college application timelines as those from college-familiar families?
@bjkmom - great insight from a teacher burdened with this. For those you do have time for, do you usually receive a reasonably sized gift cert of some sort? I’m not saying that is the reason you do them or that gives you the time to do them - I’m just curious. Our family recognized the burden on the writers and did give pretty nice gift certs.
No, I’ve never expected or received a gift.
As to the timing, I have to admit that I work in a wonderful College prep Catholic high school. The expectation is that every student will attend college, and as a result there’s a system in place.
At this point in Junior (as in, this week), every Junior requests letters from 3 teachers. Each kid hands in to College Placement the names of 3 teachers who have agreed to write him or her letters.
College Placement tries to juggle those 3 names to decrease the burden on those who are hit heavily. Each student ends up with 2 teachers who will write him or her a letter. In addition each kid gets a letter from his/her guidance counselor.
We’ll get the names around Easter time. The letters are due in College Placement by the end of the school year in June. That way, the kids who go ED or EA have the letters all set to go when school starts in the fall.
We upload the letters to Naviance, along with the checklist (from the Common App, I think) and College Placement handles the rest…