To be fair, she let me know when she agreed that she had a huge deadline of her own on December 1 and was only agreeing to do it because it was the 15th, and I know that is a pretty insane time of year anyway, so I was just grateful she agreed to do it because I have been out of school a while and there are only so many people who aren't retired and have a shot of remembering me. But last year, I had big problems with incomplete applications because of unsubmitted letters of recommendation. That former professor is now the president of a large seminary and I didn't want to disturb him, but it ended being a good thing I tracked him down because it turned out he thought they had been submitted months ago and there were problems with the submissions. It was after the deadline, but they let him just e-mail them anyway. I think by the time they hit department chair/school president, they must know the ropes and know what they can get away with. We're the newbies in panic mode.
