Submitting an additional reference letter

[spaghetti3451]

Hi, I've submitted my graduate application for some competitive programs and have had all my reference letters submitted. The deadline is now officially gone. However, I have not had my thesis advisor submit a letter of reference. I've talked to some of the programs and they have sent an invitation link for a reference letter to my thesis advisor.

However, there is one program which has not compromised. I've asked the graduate admissions coordinator, but she only mentioned that the deadline is over and that there is nothing she can do. I've emailed the chair of the admissions committee but she had not replied. Now I'm worried if the chair of the committee might get angry over my query and red-list me as a rejected applicant. :(

Should I still bother asking my thesis advisor to send a letter of reference by mail since there's been no reply from the chair of the committee?

 

[Choppy]

It sounds to me like it's a lost cause at this point.

If there's a good reason that your supervisor was unable to write a reference letter (like he or she was sick or otherwise unavailable for an extended period of time) you could ask your supervisor to write to the department and explain the situation. But if they've already said that it's too late, then it likely is.

And following up like that probably wouldn't look good if you don't have a good reason (such as you just decided to ask others because you thought they had bigger names). Not that it would completely break your application. If you're a strong candidate, you're a strong candidate. But you probably don't want to come across as the guy who couldn't get his ducks in a row and now is hassling the department because of it.

 

[spaghetti3451]

Well, thankfully, the graduate admissions chair replied and asked me to email the letter to her. :)