My recommender has not submitted...

Ultimatums are a bad idea, IMVVHO. However, I am glad that it worked out for you.

I can actually picture, or hear in this case, your call....trust me man, I have been there and I know exactly how it feels to deal with one of these type, who would promise...but when it comes to delivering...it's always next week...

I gave one of my recommenders 3-4 months to work on my recs, with a full dossier on what to address in the letter...short of writing it for him, I gave him everything i could...still he would not move....eventually, tired of his lazy behind ...i pulled the plug on him, a few weeks before the deadlines....but no ultimatums though..

Thanks triple5soul and Jivana...

You know I had heard all these horror stories about recommenders not submitting on time and I thought it happened to other people and wouldn't happen to me. I blamed the students. Now, I partly blame myself but honestly, it's all quite a surprise. I gave him 2.5 months and after a week, he even told me he had started and would have it done by the next week. And then one month went by, then Thanksgiving, then he traveled for the holidays and here we are today...several notifications later and no sign of activity from him on the application. Anyway, thanks for the advice will definitely talk to him and let him know how much time and money has been invested on my end already

Ultimatum may be a little strong. I empathetically communicated that this was very important to me and that I would not feel insulted in any way if he backed out (although I did). He apologized, wrote four outstanding letters in a few days and submitted on time. Basically, I would just say, honesty is king. N.B. This recommender was from community/extracurricular (no supervisor/career), hence the reason for my "bold tactic".

None of my Ross recommenders submitted yet.

One of my recommenders is not even replying to my emails,picking my calls.

I'm in the same boat, the guy who wrote an outstanding letter of rec for the MA program I'm in now has not returned emails/calls about the letter (or actually questionaire) that I need for the MBA program I'm applying to. He was my old supervisor, however at this point I'm thinking about just asking a past co-worker (bad, I know) at the same company. I feel like I dont have any other options.

I know it's a little late now, but definitely for future reference, always, always tell them that the recommendation is due 10-15 days ahead of time. Sometimes, they'll get one up on you and say "well, it looks like it's due this date." Tell them the system is likely to crash, and that they need to submit it earlier. It's also helpful in some cases to say that if you don't submit in time, I can't submit my application in time (which is true for a lot of schools).

Also use the guilt trip. It helps. A lot. Especially when you highlight you've been rejected by a school, and you really want to get into another one and it would help if the recommender could get in their information in on time and help you FINALLY achieve your MBA dream (I used that, and the recommender got in their stuff the next day).

My recommender finally responded.She is going to submit it today.

I think I am going to start a thread on the best excuses recommenders come up with. Here's a few to start the process:

• No signal on cell phone, ran out of battery.
• Dog hid the cell phone charger.
• E-mail not working, problem with the mail server.
• My cat deleted everyone from my contact list, and I do not accept any unknown calls.

Haha. A cat would totally do that, too. Just to mess with ya.

All -

It is probably worth noting that these days many MBA programs typically grant recommenders a 24-48 hour grace period after the regular candidate deadlines to submit their letters of support. The programs recognize that while candidates should have their ducks in a row (including getting their recommenders to comply with deadlines), they do not want to fault candidates entirely if a busy professional is behind in their responsibilities. As a best practice, you probably should operate as if this extension does not exist and certainly not make your recommenders aware of this unless truly necessary.

Best of luck to everyone with the upcoming R2/R3 deadlines!

-Admissionado