Teacher still hasn’t submitted letter of recommendation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child has asked their teacher in the spring of 2025 (junior year) when they said yes. They reminded them in September of this year and sent them their resume/brag sheet and as of today they still haven’t submitted a letter to Naviance. They are scared of reminding the teacher again this coming week in case they get mad. We are applying EA with a due date of Nov 1.
What should they do?

My student asked for LOR in th spring from two teachers and neither one is done. Gentle reminders were sent yesterday from the student (a one sentence email just checking in). Fingers crossed, I guess

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child has asked their teacher in the spring of 2025 (junior year) when they said yes. They reminded them in September of this year and sent them their resume/brag sheet and as of today they still haven’t submitted a letter to Naviance. They are scared of reminding the teacher again this coming week in case they get mad. We are applying EA with a due date of Nov 1.
What should they do?

My student asked for LOR in th spring from two teachers and neither one is done. Gentle reminders were sent yesterday from the student (a one sentence email just checking in). Fingers crossed, I guess

Asking in the spring does not change the due date. It’s still 11/1.

I usually go to a university library for 4-5 days over the summer to knock out my spring requests, knowing I’ll get even more in the fall. My spring requests are usually done by 8/1.

But you can’t expect that of teachers. Teachers aren’t paid during the summer, and some aren’t as unhealthily tied to their jobs as I am.

[Anonymous]

Yesterday one of DC’s teachers mentioned that he still has 16 letters to write for their class that are due Saturday. I am not sure what to say here. DC didn’t ask that teacher but is still waiting on one recommender to submit. Feeling like if the culture of the school makes it ok to say you are writing 16 over 4 days that maybe we are all on the same boat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yesterday one of DC’s teachers mentioned that he still has 16 letters to write for their class that are due Saturday. I am not sure what to say here. DC didn’t ask that teacher but is still waiting on one recommender to submit. Feeling like if the culture of the school makes it ok to say you are writing 16 over 4 days that maybe we are all on the same boat?

Perhaps we should all advocate for teachers to receive time at work to get letters done.

Place subs in their classes and provide administrative leave. You can certainly get 16 letters done with 2 days of admin leave.

But as long as they compete with teachers’ home obligations, this will continue to happen.

[Anonymous]

Going through the same thing. My child requested a LOR from one teacher in the Spring. He followed up twice already and she keeps promising that it will get done by 11/1, but today is 10/28 and we are very nervous. In addition, her counselor was also supposed to write a LOR and my daughter submitted all of the paperwork including my own 'brag' sheet about my daughter's accomplishments on time and the LOR from the counselor is also still outstanding.

My husband is a high school teacher who writes 50+ LOR each year and I know and understand how time consuming this is. He somestimes spends half of the weekend (during the Fall) writing these letters as well as after dinner each evening. The letters take a lot of time because he has to also rank the student and talk about their accomplishments in class. Definitely takes a lot of time, so I'm sympathetic, but I also understand the students and parents who are biting their nails in anticipation.

[Anonymous]

having gone through this last year, i do understand the anxiety with last minute submissions, but teachers and counselors have been doing this for years and years for thousands of kids so shouldn't we trust the process? nagging is just irritating for someone who is doing your DC a favor. DD did have 1 teacher who was legitimately 1 week late submitting GU LOR, but she was still accepted. i don't even think admin offices download files until days after the deadline passes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:having gone through this last year, i do understand the anxiety with last minute submissions, but teachers and counselors have been doing this for years and years for thousands of kids so shouldn't we trust the process? nagging is just irritating for someone who is doing your DC a favor. DD did have 1 teacher who was legitimately 1 week late submitting GU LOR, but she was still accepted. i don't even think admin offices download files until days after the deadline passes.

This is helpful perspective. I really hope we don’t have to deal with a late rec though!

[Anonymous]

When was the brag sheet due? My kid attends a large public school in NJ. My kids teachers asked the students to send it by mid-June or by the end of school year so that they could work on LOR over the summer. The school started after Labor Day and my kid saw LORs ready in Naviance by mid-September. I think we are very fortunate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:having gone through this last year, i do understand the anxiety with last minute submissions, but teachers and counselors have been doing this for years and years for thousands of kids so shouldn't we trust the process? nagging is just irritating for someone who is doing your DC a favor. DD did have 1 teacher who was legitimately 1 week late submitting GU LOR, but she was still accepted. i don't even think admin offices download files until days after the deadline passes.

This is helpful perspective. I really hope we don’t have to deal with a late rec though!

Well I’d think if people had experienced late Recommendations you’d have seen them commenting here and your kid would have known who not to ask because it would be talked about at school. So that should give you comfort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s infuriating, college and medical school applications held up for months because teachers can’t take 5 mins.
Have your kid make an appt during office hours and sit there while they do it.
Teachers, do what you say you’ll do in a timely manner.

Interesting that there are parents who think a LOR takes 5 min to write. And that some parents aren't aware how many LOR requests some teachers receive. My only experience is with 9th grade high school applications so forgive me if this wouldn't work for college apps, but the best practice is to a) give the teacher a deadline and b) have a backup teacher ready.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s infuriating, college and medical school applications held up for months because teachers can’t take 5 mins.
Have your kid make an appt during office hours and sit there while they do it.
Teachers, do what you say you’ll do in a timely manner.

Interesting that there are parents who think a LOR takes 5 min to write. And that some parents aren't aware how many LOR requests some teachers receive. My only experience is with 9th grade high school applications so forgive me if this wouldn't work for college apps, but the best practice is to a) give the teacher a deadline and b) have a backup teacher ready.

I don’t think that works as well for college apps. There’s already a deadline in place (10/15, 11/1… whatever the college dictates).

As for a backup, I’ve been that back-up teacher. I’ve gone home in tears when asked for letters 2-3 days before the deadline. I’m already writing other letters, but I’m also planning lessons and grading… all things that have to happen at home. My own family gets ignored. And, to add insult to injury, I’m never thanked for jumping through personal hurdles to help you out as a “back up.” Frankly, it’s abusive.

[Anonymous]

So how many days before the due date of an assignment do you expect your kids to submit it? Probably none. But you probably expect it by the due date.

[Anonymous]

While still waiting on recs, DS was able to update teachers that be had already been accepted! He had asked the Us to consider his application "complete." Tired of waiting. Admitted to his favorite. Admitted to a couple back-ups. We know other families that did this as well (depending on their tolerance for risk re: admittance to a particular school)

[Anonymous]

So, if I understand this thread, teachers don't usually respond to student email requests regarding their LOR?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, if I understand this thread, teachers don't usually respond to student email requests regarding their LOR?

Teacher here. I’ve read this entire thread. I can’t think of a single comment on this thread that would lead to your conclusion.

OF COURSE we will respond to your reminder. Just know it’s one more thing added to our to-do list. I’m currently on a break from hour 13 of work today, with another 1-2 hours ahead of me. Each email I get adds to this workload. But email away. I’ll respond.

Now back to work.