Letters of Recommendation - Better Safe Than Sorry

[Canis]

A little anecdote, which I'm sure has been experienced by many applicants every season, but still:

 

For years I've had a great relationship with the chair of this department. He has written letters for me in the past, happily, for prestigious scholarships that I was then awarded. He's a great letter writer.

 

For my PhD applications, I needed an extra letter writer, so I asked him. He's not in my department, but a related field.

 

I sent all the required and requested information: CV, classes taken with the professor, SOP, etc. Along with list of deadlines for the schools. I sent regular reminders. And still, the letters were never submitted. I sent more reminders, and still silence.

 

Then a few days ago, on the day one of the letters was due, I wrote the professor an email about a completely different topic, and he suddenly responded right away - and also said "by the way, I'm still waiting for all your materials so I can write your letters."

 

He wasn't avoiding the letters, he hadn't forgotten, he was waiting for the materials I had already sent but which our school's email system had sent to his spam folder because of the large attachments.

 

So, my lesson from this: when you set up your LORs, ask them to reply and let you know that they received the materials - whatever it takes, politely get them to confirm that they have received what they need, including the emails from schools in order to write your letters.

 

I would have thought that after years of having LORs written for me I wouldn't have run into such a simple misunderstanding - but here I was panicking about what I'd done to annoy this professor, and even wondering if he might have died... (admit it, you wonder sometimes too!)  when all along, he was waiting for materials I had already sent.

[ArtHistoryandMuseum]

OH MY GOSH, YES!

 

I had this happen last application cycle. The email with the link, for uploading/creating the letter, went to my letter writer's Spam box. 

 

Meanwhile, I was feeling discouraged that the letter writer hadn't submitted the LOR... that my heart just sank.

 

Haha! Once we had that sorted out... I learned the opposite: the letter writer was very supportive of my application, for the specific university/program. Whew!

Edited January 3, 2014 by ArtHistoryandMuseum

[TakeruK]

Agree with this! Very good advice!