Letters of Recs

[DarwinAG]

The application process is more stressful than I forecasted. As a result, I have been dropping the ball on sending letter of rec forms to my letter writers in a timely manner. I feel awful about this. Should I write an apology letter? Or just move on and act as if nothing is wrong? I have a pretty good relationship with all of them, but I really do not want to burden them more than I already am with time pressures.

[kaister]

For now, I would just include in an email or sometimes the letter or rec forms allow you to type a message, and just say, here are the forms, I apologize for not sending them out sooner, please let me know if you need anything else, thank you. And that's all I would say for now. Later after things are submitted and done, would I then formally apologize, just as a courtesy. For now, I'd say you just want to get the letter to them and have it be done.

[watson]

If you informed them that you wanted them as letter writers earlier you are probably fine. Just email a quick apology (need not go into detail or be more than a sentence), get them the forms ASAP, and move on.

If you didn't already ask for letters, then you need to be more profuse in the apology and explain why you are asking so late. That said, if there are at least 6 wks left until the letter deadline, you are just fine.