uzbit

I concur with the other posts. They won't even look at your application with until all your materials are submitted, so don't bother if you don't have 3. It'll be a serious problem to not have a single professor or research scientist submit a letter for you. You'd need published work or some other seriously amazing attribute for that to not be a deal breaker. Even then, if you published, why wouldn't you have someone you worked with on it submit for you? The only give you really have with this is if you're applying for an MBA (which I doubt you are if you're on here and not poets and quants).

I don't think this will hurt you--especially if the non-academic person really "brings it" --uses a lot of detail and examples to talk you up. I'd approach the person you want to write it and see if you can cultivate a good letter together. That way you know it'll be great (and even better, you know it'll actually get sent in). On a non-help but moral note, I'd consider writing your adviser an email one last time. Not asking for a letter, but something respectful yet direct on his/her actions. This is an example from a site that goes over LOR pitfalls. "Thank you for your advisement during my undergraduate career, I realize you’re busy and appreciate your time. Because you’ve not submitted any letters of recommendation for me, I am concerned that you may feel I underperformed in some areas. I’d really like to use this opportunity to improve on any areas you feel I’m lacking, so if you’d feel comfortable sharing those elements, it would be very beneficial to my academic development. Because I am still very serious about going to graduate school next year, it may be better for me to obtain a letter from someone who doesn’t have any reservations and is up to date on the advances I've made. Again, thank you for putting as much time into this as you have, I appreciate your mentorship and hope you’ll continue to let me know how I can improve as a student.” I don't mean to imply that they think you're a shitty student, but an email like this lets you point out their error in a way that might get a response. If nothing else it may help a student in the future. Also, sorry you had to go through that. I can't imagine a situation more frustrating than getting screwed that way repeated.

I think this is why it's so important to deal with this before you submit. You should already know what they're going to write if you're really serious about the process (and they're serious about recommending you). If they deny a request to see the letter before submission, that is your clue that there might be a problem. This way you can flush out how they feel before the last leg of your application. There is a segment from this article that is good advice: "The last thing to put in your email with the draft letter, is a request to see the final version before they submit. This is easily the most controversial part, because many professors believe it is their right to submit whatever they wish without you seeing it. The truth is that it isn’t. This is your future and your application. If they don’t want you to see what they’re going to submit for you, ask yourself why that is. It’s likely that they plan on adding a few things you may not be so fond of, such as pointing out that you missed a lot of classes or that you struggled in a particular area. While this isn’t always a deal breaker as far as admissions committees go (sometimes it helps, because it shows honesty and proves that the student didn’t write the letter), more often than not it will get your application thrown out. If they can’t write you a letter of recommendation (recommending you to another professor), they shouldn’t be telling you that they will, it’s that simple. Why would a professor lie in this way? Because they’re human, and humans hate feeling uncomfortable. They may also feel guilty because they worked with you for so long but still don’t think you can handle grad school. They may just be painfully arrogant and from a different generation, so they think that you have no rights in this whole process. It doesn’t really matter why they would lie to you, the point is that if they aren’t willing to cultivate a letter together–they’re not telling you something, and gambling on grad school applications is not recommended. Every year thousands of scathing letters of recommendation for grad school get sent to admissions committees. And not one of those people told the student they were going to submit something awful. Keep this in mind: you spent 4 years of your life (and tens of thousands of dollars) working on your GPA, months (and hundreds of dollars) studying for the GRE, and you’ll likely spend upwards of a thousand dollars to apply to graduate school. Do you want to throw all that time and money away because one professor would rather lie to you than admit they aren’t willing to write you a glowing letter? So what do you do if your professor responds and says they aren’t willing to show you the final draft? Here’s an example to give you some guidance on how to handle this situation." It's from http://www.howtogetintograduateschool.com/faqs/my-professor-asked-me-to-write-my-own-letter-of-recommendation-what-do-i-do/. I think anyone who is really serious about grad school should agree. Claiming that you'll write something positive and doing the opposite is dishonest and unprofessional. Feeling awkward saying no isn't a good reason to lie in a professional setting, even if it is "just" to an undergrad.

Email--otherwise they'll probably never see it. Unfortunate because a handwritten is more memorable.

I think the website is being updated at the moment, but this page still seems to load ok. http://www.howtogetintograduateschool.com/faqs/my-professor-asked-me-to-write-my-own-letter-of-recommendation-what-do-i-do/

Oh and one additional thing: people at Harvard/MIT/Stanford/Princeton/Oxford/Cambridge WILL have judgment for going to a second tier school (e.g. JHU, Duke, UCLA, NYU). Most will be very nice and this won't impact anything socially--but don't be naive (to above comments). They do think they're an elite club and it will bleed through (especially for MIT kids). If they went to those schools for undergrad the elitism is beaten in pretty severely. If you had a state school college experience you won't have been brainwashed in the same way. In the UK it's even more intense. If you didn't go to Oxbridge for undergrad the entire system works against you slightly. That said, grad school is so international compared to undergrad that you'll always be able to find people in the same position.

You'll accidentally make an ass of yourself one or two times, and then you'll adjust and be much happier being around people who challenge you. I say the first portion as an absolute because you're either cocky (and may not even realize it) and someone will end up making you look like an idiot within the first day if you are OR you aren't but will start to feel inadequate around people who seem to be good at everything--eventually this will probably cause you to say something stupid or sound arrogant even if you aren't to keep up. I say this because both these situations happened to me. Perhaps you're way more socially adjusted and it won't be a problem, but I'd guess a lot of people go through this at some point.