Help with teachers Letter of Recommendation

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bck11

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I’m a senior and I was recruited by a coast guard coach middle of December, around the 14th to be exact. So I was already pretty behind on my application. Five of my teachers and coaches have written me a letter, but one still hasn’t. I’ve given her reminders and talked to her In person about it twice including yesterday, she said it’s on her list of things to do and says that she knows the deadline (Jan 15th). But I’m just worried that she won’t do it, should I remind her again in person or over email? Or both? I don’t want to annoy her. But since the deadline is in six days what should I do? Go to another teacher?
 
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I’m asking this because I don’t know. Are six letters actually required?

I would ask her again. Teachers don’t have to write recommendation letters. Maybe she doesn’t want to and hopes you’ll drop it. I write 12-24 a year and usually have them finished within a couple days after I get asked.
 
Devil Doc said:
I’m asking this because I don’t know. Are six letters actually required?
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No, required is just three and one PFE, but you are able to have two more extra optional ones if you choose. But my problem is that this last teacher is one of the required letters and not an optional one.
 
My son had this same experience. Two weeks is normally the lead time you give someone to write the letter and it sounds like you did. We also just got back from winter break so I am sure she is busy and I’m sure she means it when she says it’s on her list to do. It’s hard to give solid advice without knowing her personality and how she has been with you in the past. Without knowing anything else I would perhaps wait until Monday to engage her again. Mention to her how important this is to you and how much you appreciate how she has considered writing this letter.

By the way, you have five letters already? I don’t remember my son getting five letters. I think he received from math and English teachers along with guidance counselor and someone else that knows him well.
 
I had a similar situation. Sounds cheeky, but I actually bought my reccomenders gifts (even before they submitted ). I had to remind them many times but the gift seemed to accelerate things and they got it in within a day or two 😅. A gift card and hand written card work well!
 
RetiredVeteran said:
I don’t remember my son getting five letters. I think he received from math and English teachers along with guidance counselor and someone else that knows him well.
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That's mostly what I recall as well: Math and English letters of evaluation describing your readiness for those subjects, a GC letter describing the school curriculum and your readiness, and an actual LOR to illustrate what the numbers don't say. I guess you can have two more LOR if you want but I don't think my DD used either of those (though her one LOR was a good one from her JROTC SAI who'd been in that role for quite a while and had sent kids to CGA before.)
 
RetiredVeteran said:
My son had this same experience. Two weeks is normally the lead time you give someone to write the letter and it sounds like you did. We also just got back from winter break so I am sure she is busy and I’m sure she means it when she says it’s on her list to do. It’s hard to give solid advice without knowing her personality and how she has been with you in the past. Without knowing anything else I would perhaps wait until Monday to engage her again. Mention to her how important this is to you and how much you appreciate how she has considered writing this letter.

By the way, you have five letters already? I don’t remember my son getting five letters. I think he received from math and English teachers along with guidance counselor and someone else that knows him well.
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Ok thanks for the advice!

Well technically I have four letters and one is just the PFE. You are able to have up to two additional recommendations if you choose but not required. But this last teachers recommendation is the last one that’s required and not optional.
 
Devil Doc said:
I’m asking this because I don’t know. Are six letters actually required?

I would ask her again. Teachers don’t have to write recommendation letters. Maybe she doesn’t want to and hopes you’ll drop it. I write 12-24 a year and usually have them finished within a couple days after I get asked.
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To clarify, I don't write 12-24 letters a year for academy applications. I'm an electives teacher.
 
The required letters are Math teacher, English teacher, Counselor, PFE which is submitted the same way as a LOR, and two additional optional from, say, JROTC Commander, or the Director of some community service organization where the candidate volunteers.

DS is a self-prep college reapplicant, and experienced the same situation - application SUBMITTED before Thanksgiving, but final required LOR (Math teacher) wasn't submitted until five weeks later, pushing the COMPLETION date to 30Dec. And according to the Applicant Handbook, packets are reviewed in the order they were completed, not submitted. I hate to think DS's packet got pushed back in line.

On the flip side, though, this year is different from last year in that Class of 2028 appointments were offered in a rolling basis starting the week of Thanksgiving, typically on Fridays. All remaining EA decisions were announced on 23Dec (I believe). Same with RA decisions, with appointments rolling out weekly and all remaining decisions - like DS's "thanks but not this time" - announced on 1Apr.

This year it appears all EA decisions were announced at once on or close to the end, 23Dec. I expect the same for RA. What this tells me is that the Board will review all applications and take the very top tier, as opposed to potentially offering an appointment only to see a "better" candidate downstream but not be able to offer an appointment as all slots had been filled. I'm not saying this actually happened, and certainly there is much more to the process than I know. I just see this year's process as different than last, and am less worried about the order of completion issue.

So back to the bck11's concern, yeah you don't want to pester and possibly irritate someone while at the same time asking them to say glowing things about you. Maybe explain to them in a non-pestering way that the letter is not just important, but required, and earlier is better as later may have an impact your chances.
 
CHS2NL said:
The required letters are Math teacher, English teacher, Counselor, PFE which is submitted the same way as a LOR, and two additional optional from, say, JROTC Commander, or the Director of some community service organization where the candidate volunteers.

DS is a self-prep college reapplicant, and experienced the same situation - application SUBMITTED before Thanksgiving, but final required LOR (Math teacher) wasn't submitted until five weeks later, pushing the COMPLETION date to 30Dec. And according to the Applicant Handbook, packets are reviewed in the order they were completed, not submitted. I hate to think DS's packet got pushed back in line.

On the flip side, though, this year is different from last year in that Class of 2028 appointments were offered in a rolling basis starting the week of Thanksgiving, typically on Fridays. All remaining EA decisions were announced on 23Dec (I believe). Same with RA decisions, with appointments rolling out weekly and all remaining decisions - like DS's "thanks but not this time" - announced on 1Apr.

This year it appears all EA decisions were announced at once on or close to the end, 23Dec. I expect the same for RA. What this tells me is that the Board will review all applications and take the very top tier, as opposed to potentially offering an appointment only to see a "better" candidate downstream but not be able to offer an appointment as all slots had been filled. I'm not saying this actually happened, and certainly there is much more to the process than I know. I just see this year's process as different than last, and am less worried about the order of completion issue.

So back to the bck11's concern, yeah you don't want to pester and possibly irritate someone while at the same time asking them to say glowing things about you. Maybe explain to them in a non-pestering way that the letter is not just important, but required, and earlier is better as later may have an impact your chances.
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I agree. My son had the same issue. He then explained that the sooner he can get his packet complete, the better his chances in a "rolling" environment, that values early submissions.
 
bck11 said:
I’m a senior and I was recruited by a coast guard coach middle of December, around the 14th to be exact. So I was already pretty behind on my application. Five of my teachers and coaches have written me a letter, but one still hasn’t. I’ve given her reminders and talked to her In person about it twice including yesterday, she said it’s on her list of things to do and says that she knows the deadline (Jan 15th). But I’m just worried that she won’t do it, should I remind her again in person or over email? Or both? I don’t want to annoy her. But since the deadline is in six days what should I do? Go to another teacher?
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Ask a prior year teacher for the same subject and politely verbally tell both you're doing this as a contingency (so they don't put two and two together in the teacher's lounge and think you're wasting the time of one of them). It's not required to be your senior year teacher, thus your junior year teacher would meet the requirement.
 
Maybe it's just the week I'm having at work, but I hate it when people provide a deadline, then expect things to be done early. One of the things I have to do at work is a monthly report providing some issuance numbers. The deadline for me to submit the report is by end of business on the 3rd business day of the month, although it is rare for me to submit the report any later than the 2nd business day. Because of the holiday, the 3rd business day of January was January 6th. I was out sick on January 2nd and 3rd. First thing in the morning on January 6th (7:30am), I received an email from Finance asking me where the report was. I responded, reminding the person of the due date/time, explained that I'd been out sick and that getting the report done was my first priority for the day. I am still feeling irritated about it. If you've reminded the teacher, she has verified that she has it on her to-do list and that she is aware of the deadline, I think you need to leave it at that. That said, I understand how nerve-wracking it is to wait for these mandatory application components and to have things that are critical to your future outside your own control. It's stressful to have to rely on the actions of others. I also know that sometimes, even with the best intentions, teachers can miss one of these crucial deadlines. When my son was working on his Academy nomination packets, his math teacher failed to provide one of our senators with a required recommendation letter which made my son ineligible to receive a nomination from that source. It felt earth-shattering at the time. I will say that the teacher was apologetic and had the recommendations for our congressman and other senator, as well as Academy recommendations, all done on time or early as a result of having made that mistake. My son did end up with noms to the Naval Academy and West Point from these other sources. But, of course, the Coast Guard Academy was his first choice so he didn't end up needing the noms anyway. He graduates in May. Best of luck to you! Circle back and give us an update when the recommendation is submitted. We're all rooting for you!
 
bck11 said:
What would be a good way to tell her without sounding rude?
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While on active duty, asking a senior officer for a recommendation letter with a specific suspense date and then turning to someone else could be perceived as disrespectful or offensive. Consider this a valuable lesson in professionalism and planning. In the future, if you need something sooner, communicate an earlier deadline upfront. This approach gives you a buffer in case unforeseen delays occur and prevents unnecessary panic or missteps.
 
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