How late is too late?

[edost]

I have one recommender who hasn't submitted her letter of recommendation for a program with a January 3 deadline. I've e-mailed her and she hasn't answered. I haven't been able to get in touch with her otherwise either.

Am I already screwed? How long is the grace period for letters of recommendation, usually?

[rising_star]

Contact the program and ask them what the grace period is. Many universities are just returning from winter break, which might explain why your recommender hasn't replied to your email yet.

[edost]

My recommender is Israeli. We didn't have winter break here. Anyway, I'll e-mail the program.

[surefire]

If it is at all encouraging: my program has a two-week grace period for third party submissions (LORs, transcripts and tests). Not a universal practice, but I would encourage you to remain hopeful!

[MCS_aspirant]

I also think the grace period is roughly 2 weeks~ but it definitely varies with university. I would try calling her up, or emailing to a different email address (if she has one, gmail or yahoo sort of thing).

[edost]

Today she e-mailed me, saying she tried to log in today and couldn't because of password problems, but it doesn't really matter if the deadline has passed anyway! Maybe I shouldn't have told her that it passed. I should have claimed the deadline is fast approaching. Anyway, I'll e-mail her back asking her to try again. Hopefully, she'll see the e-mail today.

She's a very nice person, but she almost gave me a heart attack!

[zillie]

I had a similar situation. This is what I did:

I contacted the department and asked if the recommender could submit her LOR late, as I had not been able to contact her. The department secretary agreed and gave me an "absolutely no later than this day" deadline. I then emailed my recommender telling her she still had time to submit, and that if she was having technical problems to let me know or the department secretary. For me, everything turned out fine.

For you, you should contact your school(s) asap and ask if they are still accepting late LORs. Also find out who your professor (or you) should contact for technical difficulties.

Good luck!

[edost]

I'll wait till Monday to e-mail the program, in case she successfully submits the letter by then. They won't answer me during the weekend anyway. Plus, because my time zone is seven hours ahead, I can wait till Monday afternoon and still send the e-mail before the secretary even gets to the office.

There's good news, too, though: except for this one letter at this particular university, all other letters (including by the same professor) at all other universities have been submitted.

[edost]

By the way, is it better to e-mail the program or the graduate school?

[bgreenster]

I had major problems with late recommendations. I'm not sure about all departments, but the schools I applied to all had an admissions person who fields questions, etc. that I could in touch with. When it became apparent to me that some of my recommendations really just weren't going to make it in time, I emailed the school to let them know of the situation. They were pretty great about it, and just told me it had to be in by a certain time (those schools said about a week, although the one school made even that seem a bit flexible). Of course, one of my recommenders missed the extension date by a day, but it seems not to have been a problem.

I would suggest getting in touch with the department or admissions head, and appraising them of the situation. They all seem understanding over this side of it being out of our hands. When I messaged, the response tended to be "we appreciate you letting us know." It certainly can't hurt to try, and just try and let your recommendation writer know the urgency of getting it in immediately. Luckily, you probably have until Tuesday before ad com does anything else.

(By the way, you can email on weekends, especially around this time... I literally had one woman from a school email me on New Year's Eve, in the evening - they seem to be basically working through the week, at least via email when not in the office)

[edost]

She has officially given up on submitting the letter on-line. I just realized I have her letter of recommendation in a sealed and signed envelope, and I'll just mail it. It will take about a week to arrive, but it's better than nothing. Too bad I didn't think about it sooner.

Now I'm glad UConn (not the same program I'm having trouble with) changed its system in the middle of application season. They originally required that all materials be sent via snail mail, but before I mailed everything, they upgraded their system to allow on-line LORs - and that's how I have the extra letter to save the day.

[surefire]

She has officially given up on submitting the letter on-line. I just realized I have her letter of recommendation in a sealed and signed envelope, and I'll just mail it. It will take about a week to arrive, but it's better than nothing. Too bad I didn't think about it sooner.

Now I'm glad UConn (not the same program I'm having trouble with) changed its system in the middle of application season. They originally required that all materials be sent via snail mail, but before I mailed everything, they upgraded their system to allow on-line LORs - and that's how I have the extra letter to save the day.

Thanks for the update! I hope that it all shakes out nicely for you!