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Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 12:00 pm
by jaydizzle
So, I have one professor that I am waiting for on an LOR. Can I send the apps without him to meet the deadlines for EA or ED? Apparently if everything is complete on the 15th, it's ok. Thanks!

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 12:12 pm
by beachbum
My first inclination is to say yes, and that LSAC will automatically update schools with your LOR when it becomes available. I'm actually in the same situation right now, so I'd appreciate people weighing in on this.

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 12:43 pm
by coolgreen42
Me too! I need to know...

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 12:44 pm
by Sandro
Should I submit my apps without any LORs? Hopefully my LOR people will get them in well before Nov 15.

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 12:56 pm
by Lwoods
If you submit the application with fewer letters than is required by the school, LSAC will pop up with an alert saying that you're missing LORs. You can pay and submit, but it won't go through until the proper number of letters are assigned and uploaded by LSAC.

If you submit the application with the total number of letters you want assigned to the school (say 3), and the number required by the school is less than or equal to the number uploaded by LSAC (2 of the 3), your application will be submitted with the two letters LSAC has on file. Once the third is in, LSAC should send the updated letter to the school. However, I ran into issues with this:
I tried to submit a LOR to Northwestern (where 0 letters are required). The letter was uploaded 12 hours after I submitted, and it never got sent... I called LSAC, and she said she'd send it, but it still was never sent. Ultimately, I decided to scrap the letter altogether and have a different LOR writer submit NU's special CPE instead. In this case, I think that was probably the best decision and what I should have done all along.
However, if you want to err on the side of caution, I'd wait until that letter was uploaded to LSAC before submitting if you really want that letter and it puts you above the requirement. If it fulfills the requirement, you can submit whenever because the application won't be sent without the required number of letters (as I experienced with my Illinois app).

Let me know if I'm not making any sense... ;)

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:00 pm
by 2807
Wait, you mean the application wont be SENT until the LOR's required are in and attached?

I thought I could send the app and addendum's (and pay), and the school will get it. BUT, they will not recieve the LSAT, LOR, GPA stuff (LSDAS report), UNTIL all that stuff is in..

Is that not true?

Did I make sense?

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:09 pm
by Lwoods
2807 wrote:Wait, you mean the application wont be SENT until the LOR's required are in and attached?

I thought I could send the app and addendum's (and pay), and the school will get it. BUT, they will not recieve the LSAT, LOR, GPA stuff (LSDAS report), UNTIL all that stuff is in..

Is that not true?

Did I make sense?
This is what my email history tells me re my experience with Illinois (I had assigned 2 letters, but the second wasn't uploaded by LSAC until a day after I submitted):

First Email Subject: LSAC Purchase Confirmation

Second Email Subject: LSDAS Electronic Application Processed Confirmation

Third Email:
Subject: LOR assignment/receipt required
Body: "... LSAC has received a request for your Credential Assembly Service (CAS) Law School Report from University of Illinois, College of Law for Fall/2011. This school requires the inclusion of 2 letters of recommendation before it will accept the report. Your LSAC account indicates that the required number of letters have not been received by LSAC or that you have not assigned them to this school. To assign letters, go to your LSAC.org account..."


Because I had already assigned the letter, no further action was required of me. Once the letter was uploaded, the application was sent.

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:43 pm
by 2807
Nope, we are not on the same wave-length here.

Your emails seem to address the LSDAS "report" and that report does have to wait until ALL of the goods are in. (transcripts, LSAT, LOR's...)

However, can't the APPLICATION (and addenda) go to the school ahead of the LSDAS report? That is what I thought TLS has taught me.. Although, the school will not look at the entire application until the report comes in....

I just wanted to get my apps in and paid for and done... and then just wait on the LSAT score and LOR's to show up and be sent. Is that possible? You are making me think it is not now... ugh

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:53 pm
by Lwoods
2807 wrote:Nope, we are not on the same wave-length here.

Your emails seem to address the LSDAS "report" and that report does have to wait until ALL of the goods are in. (transcripts, LSAT, LOR's...)

However, can't the APPLICATION (and addenda) go to the school ahead of the LSDAS report? That is what I thought TLS has taught me.. Although, the school will not look at the entire application until the report comes in....

I just wanted to get my apps in and paid for and done... and then just wait on the LSAT score and LOR's to show up and be sent. Is that possible? You are making me think it is not now... ugh
The report was generated before the letter was sent. Whether or not it was sent is not clear from my email history, and I unfortunately don't remember. I do know that it wasn't considered complete by LSAC until the letter was uploaded.
Either way, you can do everything you need to do now, but the school won't look at it until you have everything.

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:03 pm
by jaydizzle
New question since I am absurdly confused. If I send the application in without the letter, the school just gets the app? My transcript and all that stuff is in there, I am just waiting for a letter. I am annoyed that this is out of my control. I have a fricken ED deadline to make. Schools are saying everything needs to be there by the 10th or 15th, but the app in by November 1st. So, what the hell do I do?

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:30 pm
by Sandro
I thought you could send your APPLICATION in even if all your LORs werent in, just as long as you assigned them. Some schools have Nov 1 ED deadlines for the application, and all stuff must be received by Nov 15 etc...

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:50 pm
by jaydizzle
Sandro777 wrote:I thought you could send your APPLICATION in even if all your LORs werent in, just as long as you assigned them. Some schools have Nov 1 ED deadlines for the application, and all stuff must be received by Nov 15 etc...
Yeah this is what I want to know. I have one guy I am waiting on, and it is driving me insane.

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 4:15 pm
by beachbum
jaydizzle wrote:
Sandro777 wrote:I thought you could send your APPLICATION in even if all your LORs werent in, just as long as you assigned them. Some schools have Nov 1 ED deadlines for the application, and all stuff must be received by Nov 15 etc...
Yeah this is what I want to know. I have one guy I am waiting on, and it is driving me insane.
I understand these ED rules as schools requiring you to fill out and submit the primary application before the initial deadline and requiring you to go complete (i.e. all materials in possession of the school) before the secondary deadline. I think this is mostly to account for delays in processing, but it seems to me that you can still make the cut if you send in your app without an LOR.

At least, this is my interpretation. I'm in the same position: my second LOR was sent out Friday, so hopefully it's processed in the near future. In any case, I plan to ED to Duke before the November 5 deadline whether my LOR is uploaded or not.

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Tue Oct 26, 2010 5:51 pm
by dbrddr
Haven't read all of the replies, but I sent most of my apps out with 2 LORS. LSAC received my last one a few weeks later. I then "assigned" the letter to all of the schools to which I'd applied. Those schools that accept updated reports whenever LSAC generates them had received the letters by the next business day (according to both the LOR icon on the LSAC site and my status checkers for those schools). Some schools accept new reports weekly, and others accept them only on the 1st or 15th of the month. Just assign your new letter to the schools to which you've applied, and they'll receive them as soon as their LSAC-report policy allows.

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 8:16 am
by Henchman21
Lwoods

Im in a similar situation. I sent my application to Illinois without assigning any LOR's. I recieved the following email:

LSAC has received a request for your Credential Assembly Service (CAS) Law School Report from University of Illinois, College of Law for Fall/2011. This school requires the inclusion of 2 letters of recommendation before it will accept the report. Your LSAC account indicates that the required number of letters have not been received by LSAC or that you have not assigned them to this school. To assign letters, go to your LSAC.org account.

I went into LSAC and assigned two LOR's. I am now waiting for my report to be sent.
I was wondering how long it took for your report to be sent?

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 8:31 am
by Lwoods
Henchman21 wrote:Lwoods

Im in a similar situation. I sent my application to Illinois without assigning any LOR's. I recieved the following email:

LSAC has received a request for your Credential Assembly Service (CAS) Law School Report from University of Illinois, College of Law for Fall/2011. This school requires the inclusion of 2 letters of recommendation before it will accept the report. Your LSAC account indicates that the required number of letters have not been received by LSAC or that you have not assigned them to this school. To assign letters, go to your LSAC.org account.

I went into LSAC and assigned two LOR's. I am now waiting for my report to be sent.
I was wondering how long it took for your report to be sent?
Almost immediately. I would expect an updated report to be sent by end of day. If it's not, call LSAC tomorrow.

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 8:44 am
by Henchman21
Lwoods wrote:
Henchman21 wrote:Lwoods

Im in a similar situation. I sent my application to Illinois without assigning any LOR's. I recieved the following email:

LSAC has received a request for your Credential Assembly Service (CAS) Law School Report from University of Illinois, College of Law for Fall/2011. This school requires the inclusion of 2 letters of recommendation before it will accept the report. Your LSAC account indicates that the required number of letters have not been received by LSAC or that you have not assigned them to this school. To assign letters, go to your LSAC.org account.

I went into LSAC and assigned two LOR's. I am now waiting for my report to be sent.
I was wondering how long it took for your report to be sent?
Almost immediately. I would expect an updated report to be sent by end of day. If it's not, call LSAC tomorrow.
Thanks Miss Woods

Re: Sendings apps without 1 LOR?

Posted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 11:54 am
by sgtgrumbles
I did the same thing and had mixed results.

One of my LORs is already on LSAC and I'm still waiting for the other. I called a few schools that require two LORs and asked if they would wait for the second letter, to which they said yes. I also called Michigan and NYU, both of which only require one but will take more. Michigan told me it was a common request and would be no problem. NYU seemed apprehensive but said they'd "do their best to accommodate my request." However, after submitting my app to Michigan I emailed to ask - in writing - that they wait on my second LOR. An admissions person replied that they can't do that, but that it takes them three to four weeks to process an app before it is reviewed, so I shouldn't have a problem if it gets there in that time. I expect the letter to be processed soon, but I was a little upset that after having been told very clearly over the phone that I was making a routine request, I heard something else after transmitting my application. Here's to hoping my second LOR is processed soon.