What do I do?

[Ninedays9]

I recently applied for graduate school for this coming fall. I got everything sent in and asked two of my old professors to fill out recommendation forms for me. A week later, everything was in except one recommendation. I sent that professor an email basically acting as though I thought he had already sent it and asked if he could send it agian (this was advice a friend gave me). He wrote back and said he sent it that day (May 2nd).

Now I got an email from the school saying they still don't have it. I really don't know what happened, but it should have been there by now. The email said that they were going to cancel my application file if it wasn't there by May 30th.

Should I give up all hope of getting into graduate school based on this one recommendation and try for the Spring of next year? Should I email the professor yet again and ask him to send it again? I don't want to seem annoying to him, but I put in quite a bit of effort to get everything in for the application and write an essay, not to mention already paying $35 for everything to be sent in. I really don't want to not even be considered because of something I can't control. Plus one professor did send in a recommendation and I really don't want to have to ask her to do it again if I reapply.

Kinda stinks to have to stress about this on top of wedding planning stresses... but that's how it goes sometimes, I guess.

[Scrwballsgrl]

Well like you said you've got two options contact the professor and tell him that you appreciate that he sent the letter on your behalf but that the school has contacted you and stated they havent received it. Ask if it wouldnt be too much of an inconvienence if he could please send it again. I mean after all the effort you've put into getting the ball rolling on this process (and being a professor he's probably been down that road himself and knows the difficulty that can result) he shouldn't mind sending it one more time.
Or if you dont think that he would is there another professor you could contact and request that they send a letter of recommendation? Dont panic yet you've still got a little while to get it sorted out. Good luck! Congrats on the decision to complete grad school!

[FFC]

I wouldn't email the professor, I would either call him or go to see him and talk to him about it. Just be honest with him :)

[lize566]

I had this exact same problem when I applied for grad school!! I had called the professor numerous times, emailed him, stressed the importance of his rec. (you know, my future pretty much rides on you, that kind of stuff) and still got nothing. Finally I called the head of the department, he told me to call the professor again and use his name (the head of the dept. basically said there wasn't anything he could do, b/c writing recs are completely optional) but still nothing. Finally I left him a message saying I would be at his office as 2 that day to pick up my reccomendation. I showed up, he didn't have it ready (he actually said "when do you need it" to which I said last week) but promised it to me at 4, so I killed some time, and finally got my rec.

Anyways, sorry for the long-winded answer, but my advice would be go to the office expecting for the reccomendation. The way I see it is if they didn't want to write they shouldn't have commited, or at least told you they weren't going to do it. You placed your future in their hand, they should be responsible enough to follow through. I would also ask if there were any other alternatives. I explained the situation to the admissions office and they told me to just get more recs from other people and hopefully they would overlook the fact that I didn't have a professors. Maybe your grad school would be willing to do the same?

Good luck, and trust me, I know how you feel!!! It's SO frustrating!!