Delay between Admissions Office and School?

[ciistai]

My desired program at St Andrews has told me that they have neither of my two letters of reference (both sent earlier this week) and my desired program at Cardiff says they're missing one (sent earlier this week as well).

 

I feel bad harassing my referees to send yet another copy of their letters to the actual School if it's really just a matter of the Office of Admissions (to whom the referees were instructed to email their letters) sending them over. But now I'm worried that there will be some sort of colossal delay before Admissions sends them over. Which shouldn't be too hard! They're in electronic format for goodness sake!

 

I've emailed both admissions offices but heard nothing back. Should I just bite the bullet and ask my profs to send their letters to the schools directly? I already feel bad for having asked so many letters of them (9) and I struggled a lot with one of them (sending letters late, etc.) and I am just so frustrated with wrestling with this LOR thing but I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience and if you have any words of advice as to what the best option might be here.

[lifesgood]

Can you call the admissions offices to ask them?  You can call a landline on Skype without using your camera. 

 

Don't feel bad asking your referees to send more LORs...as you said, they're done electronically and the people probably saved them, so it's no big deal.  As I learned from personal experience, keep communicating to your referees on a regular basis until they submit their LORs and definitely send them a thank you card and (if possible) gift for their help. 

 

One of our neighbors just earned his Masters (maybe in History...I can't remember) at King's College in London, and he and his parents went to London yesterday for his graduation.  Good luck to you on your applications!

[ciistai]

Gah! Thank you! I don't know why I never thought of using Skype to CALL the offices... which would get a quicker response than email, I'd imagine!

 

Good luck to you as well!

Edited January 27, 2013 by ciistai

[fuzzylogician]

I assume it's the departments that contacted you? and presumably the delay at the graduate school admissions office? If so, ask the departments if they'll accept an emailed copy of the letter in the meanwhile so their deliberations are not stalled while they wait for the hard copies to arrive from the graduate school. It shouldn't be hard for your recommenders to email a letter they must already have completed and on file.

[ciistai]

Well, I've had my profs email their letters directly to the programs now, but it seems like Admissions at Cardiff has somehow lost an ELECTRONIC letter. I am not sure how they did this!