Recommender not sending in recommendation!

[feefeefee]

My final recommender has yet to submit their rec and I'm a bit frazzled about it. I asked her months ago. She was sent a reminder 2 weeks ago and I re-sent a reminder yesterday! She was happy to agree to do this so I'm hoping she comes in last minute, but if she's a couple days late is there any chance that won't be a big deal?

[schoolpsy15]

I had the same thing happen to me, it is terribly frustrating. I contacted a new person to write a letter last minute, which was great.  Best of luck in this situation!

[nugget]

You need to ask each of the schools this questions. Every department will have their own stance on this situation. I know that some social work departments, for instance, will accept late reference letters (but everything else needs to be in on time) because this is something the applicant doesn't have full control over and it may not be their fault.

[VulpesZerda]

I'm in the same boat. I'm trying not to worry about it but it's hard. I think I will use the applications' reminder features today - have you tried that?. I just have a feeling my LOR writer is seeing family for Thanksgiving and won't get to it until this week (deadline is Monday)

[CogPsych2015]

My last one didn't get hers in until the day the app was due...even though I knew she would get it in, it was still incredibly stressful. From what I know, there's a little bit more leeway with a letter of rec than with other application materials, simply because it's mostly out of your control. If they were all in late, they might think that you didn't give your writers enough time. However, one late one should not reflect poorly on you, assuming it's not more than a few days late.

[Tolman's Rat]

In the same boat right now and it's extremely stressful. He told me that he would do them on Thursday as he has visitors all weekend (my first apps are due Monday), but he didn't do them. I sent a reminder yesterday and he said that he got it, so I'm hoping they just come in last minute. I also asked him initially months ago (back in June, actually, and then sent out prompts for the first time in early October). I'd like to ask someone else, but this individual is incredibly influential in my field and his recommendation will go a long way. Each school is different with regard to whether recommenders can submit late so you will want to check specific guidelines. 

 

Hope it all works out for you. You're not alone!!!

[Chai_latte]

This happened to me.  I don't know when your deadline is, but you need to get more aggressive.  I gave all of my recommenders 8 weeks.  I sent three friendly reminders between 4 weeks and 4 days prior to the deadline.  One prof. was neither responding to my reminders nor submitting recommendations.  With a week to go, I got another recommendation from someone else (he was a lifesaver...gave me peace of mind).  I also visited the professor three days prior to the deadline.  I felt that a face-to-face was the only thing that would get her to follow through.  I sat in front of her office for three hours before she came in.  We talked for about 2 minutes, and the recommendation was submitted that evening.  Problem solved! 

Are programs flexible with recommendation deadlines?  It depends.  Call each school and ask.  But, lay on your professors.  They agreed to write for you.  You gave them an ample amount of time.  They need to follow through in a timely fashion.

[feefeefee]

Luckily, I still live in my college town and will be going to my prof's office hours monday morning. All will hopefully be well, but this is crazy nerve racking!! 

[Rose Tyler]

I was just about to come make the same thread. One of my recommenders (and not one I could replace as he's been my professor, adviser, and head of the only lab I've worked in) waited until yesterday to submit all of his recommendations. It was horribly nerve-wracking but now I can breathe easy on that count.

 

The problem is one of my schools is missing two letters. One of them is marked "started" and the other one hasn't been touched at all. These professors have submitted all their other letters so I know they're on top of that. I resent notification emails to both last week but still nothing. I want to email them today because the deadline is tomorrow but I'm also afraid they'll get angry with me that I didn't let them know before now. I just thought they might be waiting like my third professor, or that maybe the system was inaccurate. Now that one of my letters has been marked "submitted" I know that last theory probably isn't true.

[Con24]

Hi!

 

I'm on the same boat. I've already sent my first application, I wanted to be considered for early notification, but my last recommender hasn't send his letter (I know he started it when I reminded him, it's maked as "in progress" in the application management page) and I can not change my recommenders (since I've already submitted and paid the application fee), so I'm guessing I won't be considered for early notification and I'll have to wait for the regular deadline 

 

How do I politely remind my reocmender that my future depends on this and that I'm freakin' out? I've written several emails, and sent him reminders from the application... I'm starting to get pretty anxoius (and angry.. he told me he'd do it!). He's my star recomender, everyone I asked suggested he should write it, that he'd boost my chances to getting into most schools (I'm an international student, he was my professor in college, but now has a very prestiguous job in the US...being an international student, getting a LOR from someone like that is next to impossible, and in theory I've got it, except he won't actually send it!).

 

I've obviusly stated seraching for an other recomender for the rest of the schools I'm applying to, I don't wanna be in this incredibly stressful situation again.

[psych face]

I've got one lagging professor with one lagging rec. I've sent about five reminders - and I know this person doesn't check their email a lot because if it gets too many unread emails in it they just ignore it and do their more important stuff. I'm just going to go and tease them a little.

Problem is, with some of these people, they are never somewhere you can find them on campus. They lurk in random meetings, you can't track them down. What you really have to do is look up their course schedule and stalk-attack them outside one of their classrooms.

[VulpesZerda]

Y'all are lucky you're not three thousand miles away from your lagging letter writer! Fml

 

Good luck to everyone, I'm sure this will work out just fine for us. It seems most programs are familiar with this situation and are okay with it.

[KW58D]

I had 3 primary LOR writers, and 3 secondary in case anyone fell through. Luckily that didn't happen. Not a fun process.

[sharksrjawesome]

One of my LOR writers waited until an hour before the deadline on Dec 1st to submit to one of my schools, and then made a joke about it when I saw him in class the following day. If looks could kill....the look I gave him..   He has yet to write any of the other letters that are due very soon. My other letter writers are pretty on top of it. As far as emailing professors to remind them, I don't know everyone's personal relationship with their professor so they will have to be the judge of that, but I had to email this particular professor every couple of days the week prior to the letter's deadline. He just kind of forgets to do things/waits until the last minute. I am sure that I will have many a sleepless night now until the last of the application deadlines..

[TheMercySeat]

Yup!

I know this feeling.

Two of my managers claim that universities don't really care if letters of rec come in late... Is there any truth to this in PhD psych programs? I was initially left with the impression that a late letter of rec will deem an application incomplete.

Edited December 8, 2014 by TheMercySeat

[Rose Tyler]

I had a late letters at a couple schools (clinical PhDs) and they contacted me to say that my application was incomplete until the letter arrived. One of them the letters were submitted online on the deadline but they didn't link to my application until a day or two later. One of them had to be mailed and they gave me a couple of days to get it there.

[VulpesZerda]

Yup!

I know this feeling.

Two of my managers claim that universities don't really care if letters of rec come in late... Is there any truth to this in PhD psych programs? I was initially left with the impression that a late letter of rec will deem an application incomplete.

Eh... Depends on the program. I wouldn't assume anything. When I was convinced my letter would be late (he submitted at 11pm on the deadline day) I called four programs and the general consensus was that about one week late would be acceptable.

[TheMercySeat]

Thanks!

This process is pretty awful. I don't want to take any chances for my December 15th deadline so I think I'm going to swap out one of my recommenders.