How long to hear back for LoR request?

[Ciarrai300]

Hi all,

 

I recently sent out all my requests for LoRs and was just curious how long it took from request to response for everyone else.  I'm nowhere near the point to be nervous or freaking out or anything, I just wanted to get an idea.

 

Thanks!

[TakeruK]

It depends on how busy your people are. Some of mine responded right away, saying they will write it, while others took a few days / a week. If you have applications coming up Dec 1, then I would probably resend any requests around Nov 1 just in case you need to find an alternate LOR writer. You are talking about the initial request to ask if they can write your letter, right?

 

If you mean you've already confirmed who will write your letters and you have just submitted the LOR details to your application system so that the email LOR request just went to your writers, then you should probably expect to not hear back for awhile. Most of my LOR writers submitted their letters just a day or two before the deadline, sometimes one or two days after the deadline.

[iphi]

Go ahead and write a follow-up email about 10-14 days after you send the original request. Make sure you tell them that they should not feel pressured to accept if they don't want to, but that you would appreciate a response ASAP so that you have time to find someone else to do it if they are unable to.

[Ciarrai300]

Thanks for the input!

[Cesare]

Just heard back from one of mine after 2 weeks for my third letter of rec. I was so sure that the answer would be no (I did well in his class, but the professor can be difficult/unpredictable) that I went ahead and asked for a letter from someone else who would write a "did well in class letter." He already submitted his letter, so the schools that have a strict 3 letter limit will never see the additional positive one that is in my field. 

Moral of the story: Be Patient