Lost all 3 of my Letter of Recommendations

[durango1192]

Is it common that graduate schools lose all of your letters of recommendation.

I just don't understand how this can happen. For example, I had to send in 3 letters from separate sources at different times.

Each of the three letters have not arrived, and this was months ago.

Has this happened to any of you? Could you describe the situation and how you fixed the situation?

Seems that two of the schools I applied for will not even process my application because they are missing all 3.

However, all the other schools have received all of them.

Really would not like to bother already all the professors to have to fill out the forms again and attach the letters again, after they helped me so much.

What to do?

Any similar stories?

Thanks.....

[snappysorbet]

This actually happened to me with one program I applied to this year. I only found out about it because I have been in touch with a professor in the department, and when I asked about the status of my application she said it was complete except for my letters of recommendation, and therefore they could not move forward with reviewing my app. I did the same thing that you did; the letters were mailed early, but separately. I called the Graduate Admission Office and the problem seemed to be that letters of recommendation are not considered "high priority" for the Grad Admissions Office, although they are for the department, so the Grad Office took their time about passing them along to the department. The young woman I spoke with didn't know if they had arrived or not, but told me that they probably had and just hadn't been processed yet because they are considered "low priority." In the end, the professor at this particular institution suggested that I have my recommenders email their letters to her directly. That seemed easy enough, and my recommenders were more than willing to take 5 minutes to send off an email to her. Anyway, I would suggest calling/emailing the Graduate Admissions Office directly, and also calling/emailing someone in the department, and simply explaining what's going on. People are usually fairly willing to help.

Good luck, and let me know how this turns out for you.

[rising_star]

It happened to me. Just have them resent. The people who wrote your recommendations will understand.

[aginath]

My entire application folder for UGA got lost about a month before decisions. It happens.

FTR, it was later found at the bottom of a faculty member's desk, but that was AFTER copies of everything had been re-sent to the department.