Teacher still hasn’t submitted letter of recommendation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers- if you don’t have time, then please don’t agree to doing it. It’s that easy!

Lol this teacher hasn't even missed the deadline, and you're already faulting her for agreeing to do this huge favor for her student.

You're ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Happened to my kid. We didn't know it hadn't been submitted until the college reached out. My kid had asked the previous spring and teacher agreed then my kid followed up with dates and suggested input. Teachers excuse was something like "My cat died last summer." Counselor was useless. Luckily my kid still got in but it was nerve racking and frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers- if you don’t have time, then please don’t agree to doing it. It’s that easy!

I mean, I get it, but they aren’t paid extra to write all these letters in their free time and there isn’t enough paid planning time to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers- if you don’t have time, then please don’t agree to doing it. It’s that easy!

I mean, I get it, but they aren’t paid extra to write all these letters in their free time and there isn’t enough paid planning time to do it.

Teacher here, and I appreciate you. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

OP, it doesn't matter -and- it does matter.

The rec will likely not be considered late by the college. There is a grace period. EA apps probably aren't looked at right away after the deadline, and the college knows the rec is out of the student's control. I do not think it would usually matter for admission.

I share your exasperation though. We had our son submit several applications without teacher recommendation (because the teachers hadn't done them -- with many months notice) On his application he stated the leadership roles he had held in high school -- which all had needed teacher recommendations, at the time. He stated that. He self reported GPA because the school was also late with the transcript. He got in to several schools this way.

But it's an atrocity, imo. DS had rolling admission schools, which we had a meeting with his counselor about -- in the spring. Counselor sat on all information. App went in in Aug. HS didn't do their part until Nov.

At every turn the HS failed to act in a timely manner, and it matters. It might matter re: merit aid. It matters because of strategy. I would have thought, as a high achiever coming from FCPS, that one less student/family hell bent on getting into UVA/VT - that that would be a welcomed thing - but it's almost like the HS punishes you for any out of state , unique timeline or admitting early in rolling admission.

[Anonymous]

Guys, IT'S NOT LATE.

[Anonymous]

4 years in FCPS feeling pretty good about the professionals but the last, huge impression for the student and their family is indifference, and inaction that borders on incompetence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers- if you don’t have time, then please don’t agree to doing it. It’s that easy!

A handful of teachers in my department (math) took that approach this year. It means the rest of us have 1.5x as many to write because anyone going into stem wants a math rec, so please give us every calendar day we have been allotted.

When we all decide to take a stand and say no, then what?

(To be honest I’d bet 10 years from now rec letters are a thing of the past)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had 22 requests this year. I sat with every child to discuss what to put in them, took detailed notes, and have been cranking them out one at a time when I have a free hour (they don’t take 5 minutes). The ones that are due 11/1 are my agenda for this afternoon after my kids’ sports games.

Please understand that the total commitment is probably 1.5 hours. 20 minutes talking with your kid, 45-60 minutes writing it, 10 minutes filling out the common app ranking/checkbox questions, and 5 minutes filling out the summary questions on the form and uploading the pdf.

If you need it done faster I’m happy to speed it up, but then ChatGPT comes into play out of necessity. My day job is already 10 hours of time. This is a weekend only project. (And yes, I could have written it in June but I have been burned too many times by kids who asked for it and never followed through with applying to schools that needed them. That’s 2 hours of time wasted, so I’m gun shy now and wait until my name shows up in the portal in August or September)

Thank you for spelling this out. NP. IMO the system is broken when we expect teachers to do this. And don’t get me started when counselor letters are required when our huge public school counselors have 200 kids. They do not know our kids nor should we expect them to do anything but regurgitate what’s on the transcript and activity list.

Thank you for all you do!

[Anonymous]

Haven’t read the responses but I believe the common app has a remind button for the teacher recs. My child resubmitted the request in CA to remind his teacher of the 10/15 deadline.

[Anonymous]

"Late" is a problem for many. Or not done at all. Even if, for the Op, Nov 1 hasn't passed yet.

The Op's post triggers complaints from many other FCPS poster, sharing their experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers- if you don’t have time, then please don’t agree to doing it. It’s that easy!

A handful of teachers in my department (math) took that approach this year. It means the rest of us have 1.5x as many to write because anyone going into stem wants a math rec, so please give us every calendar day we have been allotted.

When we all decide to take a stand and say no, then what?

(To be honest I’d bet 10 years from now rec letters are a thing of the past)

Good point. One of my 24 grad’s teachers said they won’t do them. It made a scramble plus now I see your point of putting it on their colleagues.

Ridiculous

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4 years in FCPS feeling pretty good about the professionals but the last, huge impression for the student and their family is indifference, and inaction that borders on incompetence.

It is not indifference, inaction, or incompetence.

I have almost 50 of these letters to write. I’m crafting them every spare moment I have. I’m creating spare moments by staying home while my family goes to pumpkin patches. I skipped a meal with extended family the other night.

And, as others have pointed out, I still have time. I know when the deadline is and I’ll get the letters in. The deadline hasn’t arrived yet.

So please don’t insult me while I am giving up A LOT to get these done. And as a reminder: these are not required by my job, nor does my job give me any time to complete them. This is a gift of my time to your child.

[Anonymous]

I will start by saying, as the child of a retired teacher, that I agree with and echo everything teachers have written: this is a ton of work for them, and they take it seriously and want to do it well. Thank you.

The one piece of context I will add that explained why for my kid, at least, not having both recs in by now is stressful is that his ED school requires only one recommendation but will accept up to three. Obviously he wants to put his best foot forward so wants to attach both recs. But because he can meet the minimum requirement with the one rec that’s in, he can’t ensure that the second rec will be added to his application after he submits. So if the teacher doesn’t submit until Nov. 1, my kid has to wait until Nov. 1 (a Saturday) to submit his application, which means if there are any issues with submission that he can’t get help with them until two days after the deadline.

So the concern from some kids isn’t necessarily that teachers won’t meet the deadline but rather that the kids need a little bit of wiggle room to manage recs to align with each school’s unique submission rules.

That said, the teacher my kid has been waiting for just emailed saying recs will be done a few days before the Nov. 1 deadline. This was a big relief to my kid and meant he didn’t have to bother the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will start by saying, as the child of a retired teacher, that I agree with and echo everything teachers have written: this is a ton of work for them, and they take it seriously and want to do it well. Thank you.

The one piece of context I will add that explained why for my kid, at least, not having both recs in by now is stressful is that his ED school requires only one recommendation but will accept up to three. Obviously he wants to put his best foot forward so wants to attach both recs. But because he can meet the minimum requirement with the one rec that’s in, he can’t ensure that the second rec will be added to his application after he submits. So if the teacher doesn’t submit until Nov. 1, my kid has to wait until Nov. 1 (a Saturday) to submit his application, which means if there are any issues with submission that he can’t get help with them until two days after the deadline.

So the concern from some kids isn’t necessarily that teachers won’t meet the deadline but rather that the kids need a little bit of wiggle room to manage recs to align with each school’s unique submission rules.

That said, the teacher my kid has been waiting for just emailed saying recs will be done a few days before the Nov. 1 deadline. This was a big relief to my kid and meant he didn’t have to bother the teacher.

Theres no extra credit for it being in early. Your kid can submit their part and still allow others to wait for the deadline.