Can a Missing Letter Hurt Me if I Meet the Minimum?

[HistoryGypsy]

Brown requires three LORs for my program, but gives you the option of submitting up to five. Knowing that three of my former profs were very busy and two of those three had been suffering considerable health issues, I went ahead and sent out for five people to write LORs for me. However, one person was unable to write -- meaning that I have four letters in, but one still listed that has never arrived. I went on to my application and tried to delete the extra, but with no luck, and I certainly don't want to bother him about it now (he was a wonderful prof, but is very ill now and would feel tremendously guilty if he realized he had forgotten such an important letter). Is that missing letter, realistically, going to hurt my chances at all, since I do have one more than the minimum?

[lyrehc]

Most of the time decisions are made based on what is there. Depending on who has what piece of paperwork there's a good chance your department won't even know one is missing.

[Enhydra]

It probably won't matter at all, but I would contact the grad school coordinator and explain that one of your letter writers became ill and was unable to send a letter, but that you have more than the minimum required. This way you've alerted them to the reason behind the missing letter, just in case it causes a system hang up or something.