do admissions offices ever call your recommenders? Forum

[acat10]

Quick question!

Do admissions offices routinely contact the applicant's recommenders? If they do, is it usually by phone or are they more likely to use email?

One of my LORs is from my employer, who is often away from the office. It just occurred to me today that if admissions offices do make use of the phone number from the LOR form, then I should have put his cell number instead of the office number.

Edit: Hoping to either find some peace of mind, or some idea of how badly I've screwed things, depending on what the answer is

[paglababa]

Quick question!

Do admissions offices routinely contact the applicant's recommenders? If they do, is it usually by phone or are they more likely to use email?

One of my LORs is from my employer, who is often away from the office. It just occurred to me today that if admissions offices do make use of the phone number from the LOR form, then I should have put his cell number instead of the office number.

Edit: Hoping to either find some peace of mind, or some idea of how badly I've screwed things, depending on what the answer is

No

[Trig]

I know Georgetown emailed my recommenders saying thanks for the letter of rec for X candidate. I don't think schools will call to verify the details of the letter but I think they make some attempt to make sure the letter is legit.

[cesium]

Normally, they would not simply due to lack of time, but if they suspect the letter may be fraudulent, then they might. I know one professor at my undergraduate college (let's call her "Prof. Jones") who had a former student write a recommendation letter for PhD admissions in her name. Coincidentally, a professor on the admissions committee actually knew Prof. Jones, and noticed that the letter was not written in her usual style. He called her up, which revealed the fraud.