How to tell a professor I no longer need his recommendation?

[jmcgee]

I did something super dumb. I emailed four of my former professors on the same day, asking each for a letter of recommendation. I knew fully well I only needed three! I guess I just expected at least one to say he or she was too busy at the moment. (I did not know then that most professors consider such letter writing a part of their job.) Instead, all four quickly responded in the affirmative. However, two seemed very enthusiastic about doing so, while the other two seemed simply willing to do so. Of the two latter professors, one is a professor of the particular period of literature I plan to study in my doctoral program, so his is important to me even if it's not overflowing with zeal. My problem is that I'm not sure how to tell the fourth professor that I no longer need his recommendation. (I really don't want to use all four, even at those programs that welcome that many, as I don't want his potentially lukewarm recommendation to detract from the power of the others.) I know this was a stupid situation to get myself into, but I would really appreciate some advice as to how to word the email I have to write him. I guess I just don't know how sensitive professors are in these matters. Maybe he'll just be happy I'm not taking up his time? To further complicate things, he is the newly appointed chair of my department and will be overseeing my master's essay. Were this not the case, I'd probably just drop it and assume he'd forget, as I know he's crazy busy with his new job, but I'm so worried he'd just flat-out ask me one day what happened with my application. Aargh! To reiterate, I would love some help wording this email, particularly as I tend toward overthinking and verbosity (if you didn't pick up on that).

Thanks so much!

P.S. Oh, no! It just occurred to me that he hypothetically could have already written the letter! I really, really doubt that is the case, as he's not necessarily the most efficient professor I've ever had, but just the fact that he COULD have spent his precious time and the fact that, were this the case, I would have completely wasted it looks really bad on me. Aargh! Should I just use his as a fourth letter to those schools that will accept it, even at the risk of watering down my other letters?

[TakeruK]

I think you should just be honest and say that you had mistakenly asked for one more LOR than necessary. If you do it quickly, then they will probably not mind.

Alternatively, you could try to figure out which writers would be the best fit for each school. You don't have to submit the same set of letters to all of your school. If this fourth professor has a strong connection with one of your programs (e.g. alma mater, did a post-doc there, has collaborators) then it might be better for that prof to write your LOR there. To do this, just reply to the third and fourth prof's email confirming their letter writing and show them the list of schools, asking if they think a letter from them will especially help you at any of these schools. It depends on how well you know these profs though.

By the way, I don't immediately see how the fourth prof is not as important as the third prof. Supervising your masters essay is a important role so he could say a lot of useful things about you in the LOR!

[comp12]

I think it might be worthwhile to just keep all four letters. Like TakeruK says, you can evaluate which 3 to use on a school-by-school basis. Also, some schools probably even have the option of allowing you to add additional letters, and the 3 is just a minimum number.

[Darth.Vegan]

Some schools allow you to submit as many as 6 letters, though more than 4 or 5 is probably excessive.

[kaykaykay]

don't worry even if you decide to tell him not to write- normally professors have a lot to do, he will not cry over less work.

[HappyCat13]

Hi I did this before. Same as you: 4 profs.

There are two profs which only gave me lukewarm responses. So I actually made appointments with them and met them personally in their offices. One prof keeps on asking if I have other referees who know me better. I was almost going to pick him as my referees. But after the meeting with him, I've decided to go for my fourth prof, whome responded enthusiastically when I met him face-to-face.

I wrote email to the prof and said I no longer need his recommendation. Of course, the email was polite and clearly elaborated the reasons: I said because it might be difficult for him to write letters for a student he's not familiar with. And I said initially I didn't think of the fourth referee, but I realized that the fourth referee actually knows me better and could provides me different perspective in the letter. And lastly, I said sorry and hopefully I didn't waste any of his time.

[emmm]

From reading these boards, it is not entirely unusual for one prof to agree to write for you and then "flake out" and submit late or not at all...so having an extra available might not be such a bad thing...