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wtf

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:39 am
by grae313
One of my recommenders didn't submit his letters for me.

He knew when the deadline was, I emailed him earlier this week, Friday, and today. I haven't heard from him. I never thought I'd say this, but I hope he's in the hospital or something. *$!# I'm so upset right now... why did my first, second, and third choice schools have to have the earliest deadlines?! I don't even know if my applications are going to get looked at now. :cry:


wtf wtf wtf wtf ?!

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:48 am
by vicente
that happened to me too. I e-mailed him two weeks and one week before, and then left him a voicemail about it. But he still didn't answer.

Finally he sent it in a couple of days after the deadline. I hope the graduate dept didn't mind.

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:57 am
by quizivex
Damn I'm really sorry that happened to ya. It just sucks that you can work so hard for 4 years to build up a strong record and to think it could be compromised by some irresponsible prof not submitting a letter on time...

I don't know if it'll matter, I hope it doesn't. It shouldn't since decisions aren't made until after the new year anyway. Besides, they know students don't have full control over what their profs do. Now if you submitted your part of the app late, that'd be a different story.

Note that the app system records the date that you request your recs, so if the school wanted to, they could see that you registered him long before the deadline and that it was probably his fault... I think you'll be ok.

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 2:00 am
by grae313
I hope you're right. If I can't get ahold of him on Monday I'm calling the schools to tell them what's going on. He's the frickin' chair of the chemistry department of my school, you'd think he would know what this was all about...

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 4:20 am
by butsurigakusha
I didn't have any problems with my Profs submitting on time, but I have had a problem with the postal service. Life lesson: don't trust USPS with anything important. I sent all of my supplemental materials for UCSB in an envelope via Express Mail. It was supposed to be delivered on Thursday. But when I use the online tracking, it says that it arrived at the post office in Santa Barbara at noon on Thursday, but it doesn't say it was delivered. I called the postal service today, and they said it should be delivered today, but I don't trust what she said one bit. I can't believe it hasn't been delivered. I hope it is just incorrect information, and that it really was delivered on Thursday. What's the point of paying extra for express delivery if it won't get there on time. They guarantee that it will be delivered on time, but what a worthless guarantee. They will refund the shipping costs. How about they also refund my application fee if it is not accepted because it's late. Anyway, I'm pretty frustrated.

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 4:36 am
by grae313
yeah I overnighted all my paper materials, but this guy hasn't submitted any online letters either, and there really is no excuse for that. Unless, like I said, he's in the hospital...

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 11:25 am
by will
Honestly? I wouldn't sweat it. It's out of your hands in any case, but also, from what I've heard, the deadlines aren't as strict as they look. In fact, the harshest punishment I've seen for missing the deadline is that maybe, possibly, you might not be in the first pool for financial aid (which would of course suck, but note the careful wording). As long as he gets them in within the week I doubt the departments you're applying to will even notice.

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:51 pm
by drken
@ butsurigakusha:

the same exact thing happened to me with santa barbara! i mailed my supplemental materials using Express Mail with a guaranteed delivery by Friday at 3 PM, but the online status just shows that it arrived at the post office in Santa Barbara on Thursday at noon, and it hasn't changed! I was going to call them tomorrow to find out what the f*** is going on... can you call the USPS on sunday?? Extremely frustrating....

One thing that was strange about UCSB's address though, was that there was no street or number....

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:50 pm
by grae313
will, reading your posts has taken a good portion of that load off my mind. I really, really hope you're right! Maybe they are all off for Christmas break and will start looking when they get back, and will treat all of the applications that were submitted on time and are complete at that point equally.

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 5:29 pm
by GCS
This isn't really related to the original topic, but to those that were discussing USPS deliveries of their UCSB materials...

I sent my stuff Wed. at noon, through Express Mail, and online it says it was DELIVERED at 2:28 pm on Thrusday. It also has the name of the person that signed for the package. In case anybody finds this useful....
One thing that was strange about UCSB's address though, was that there was no street or number....
I think that's why they said to include the 4 digits of the extended zip code

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 4:07 pm
by grae313
So apparently, when I emailed my letter writer Tuesday to remind him that the *paper* letters for UCSB and UCLA were due at the schools by Saturday, he interpreted that as me telling him those two were the only ones he needed to worry about for this week. He mailed my UCSB and UCLA letters last Wednesday but forgot to email me, and he submitted my Harvard and Cornell letters this morning from London. All this even though when I requested my letters, I gave him a nice summary sheet with all the schools I wanted a letter for and their individual deadlines.

I really hope it won't make any difference that the letter is two days late for Cornell and Harvard.

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:46 pm
by will
If it will ease your mind, remember you can always call or email; I really think that they won't even notice though, otherwise.