Should I try to change my letter of recommendation if it's inaccurate? Answered
My teacher sent me a copy of the letter she wrote, and it has my name spelled wrong and the wrong pronouns. Other than that, it's a great letter. I thought I could just ask her to resubmit it with my name right and whatnot, but it turns out that'd be really hard to do, and probably involve removing her as a recommender and re-adding her maybe with a different email. To make matters worse, she lives in a different state than me so I can't just ask her. What should I do?
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3 answers
I would let it go and not worry about it. Typically teachers do not share their recommendations with former or current students so in a way you wouldn't have found about the mistakes if she didn't send you a copy.
College admissions readers are not going to pay close attention to your name spelling or pronouns since they have only 7 to 10 minutes to read your entire file with all of your transcripts, essays and recommendations. They care more about whether your teacher had something unique and meaningful to say about you and whether she was strongly advocating for you or not.
You should not contact the colleges about this either because I'm not sure what their policies are about student being able to preview recommendations or not. There could be a bigger muckup if you tried to correct it. You just have to have faith in the process and hope your other recommendations were as kind and supportive as you think this one was.
Good luck on your applications.
Don't change anything. The reviewers will understand and they know that it isn't you writing the letter. Just leave it how it is. Good luck!
Hi @sidonierose,
I'm sorry this situation arose in what is already a stressful college application season. Unfortunately, this close to the due date, I don't think you should risk correcting your reviewer or taking the time to find a new one.
Also, because of the FERPA waiver, you should not have seen your letter, even if it was already submitted.
The only potential solution is finding another reviewer, but if you can't find one in such short notice, I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Hope this helps and best of luck!
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