Prof hasn't sent any LOR, and is also no longer answering my emails ?!

[ahmadka]

Hi guys .. So I have a Professor who in early November agreed to write a 'good' LOR for me. Throughout November, he replied to any emails I sent him (2-3 emails in November). However his last email to me was on 1st December - a reply to a question I asked him. Since then he has not replied to any emails. I've mentioned him as one of the three References for SEVEN universities, out of which he hasn't sent his LOR to even ONE so far, and the deadline for most was 15th December.

 

I called him 8th December, and he 'promised' me to send them 'on time'. He can't send them 'on time' anymore as he has missed the deadline, but what's troubling me even more is that he isn't responding to any of my weekly email reminders.

 

Please advice, what should I do ?

 

Is there a possibility that he doesn't intend to send those LORs at all, even though he 'promised' me earlier to send them on time ? Do I need to be prepared for this ?

[Applemiu]

I am very sorry for what you are going through. Probably he is very busy, or a procrastinator... I am sure he has the intention to write the letter, and he just puts it off every day... Anyway if the letters are a bit late is still perfectly OK, don't worry about that, the problem is how to make him write them.

[ahmadka]

I understand that he might be putting them off for now, but the thing I don't understand is why he isn't replying to my emails anymore. That is the most troubling thing for me which I can't understand.

[Applemiu]

Maybe he does not answer because he knows that now he is late... he is thinking he will write it tomorrow or something like that... I am sure he is in good faith, probably just a procrastinator. 

Did you send the reminders from the universities websites and an email? You can write something like: I just wanted to remind you about the letters... I sent the requests again so you have all the links ready in your inbox... thanks a lot etc. It is important that you send the requests again, so the universities can see that you are trying to get the letter (not every day of course). Hope this helps!

Edited December 24, 2014 by Applemiu

[BeatBackBones]

Same thing is happening to me. My 3rd recommender has basically gone missing. I've emailed her university account thrice, her personal once, sent her a message on LinkedIn and left a voicemail in her office. What. The. F**k. She's already missed the first deadline (for NYU) by some weeks and the next deadline is on Wednesday. I'm panicking for sure and plan to show up to whatever class she's teaching Monday morning. Like a stalker. UGH. Good luck.

[statsgirl4]

Not to make people panic, but in case someone reads this thread in future application cycles:

 

I had a letter writer drop out of email contact around mid-December through my application cycle and letters were not being submitted. I had been out of school for a year and had moved, so I was no longer on campus. I continued to send email reminders for a couple weeks, figuring with the holiday season and breaks that letters had been put on the back burner. Mid-January I called the department office as I was getting concerned, and it turned out that my letter writer was out on medical leave and was totally out of communication with the department as well.

 

I ended up having to contact another faculty member late in the application cycle, who was thankfully able to take over the remaining application letters and really saved me, but we weren't as close so I'm not sure as to how strong the letters actually are. I still don't know what happened to my initial writer, and I have sent them get well emails and a card to their office, but if anyone is running into problems with a lack of communication, ***try and figure out what is going on as soon as possible***! I wasted a couple precious weeks trying to be polite and considerate of the finals/holiday/break cycle. The week where I had to do damage control for this was one of the worst I've had, and I am still torn between concern and anger at my former advisor. (They are either truly incapacitated or truly inconsiderate, and I hope that they only violated my trust and are not very sick.)

[Fred Garvin]

Man, what a nightmare scenario. I'm sorry to hear that you're going through that.

I don't know what the standard process is in academia, but in the military, the person who requests the letter of recommendation (LOR) often drafts one for the recommender to edit as they see fit before signing it. Actually I'll go one step further: unless the reference explicitly states they want to write their own letter from scratch, submitting a draft for them to work with is the expectation.

By reducing the time and pain factor for the reference, this makes prospective references much more likely to offer their support and much less likely to miss a deadline. It also improves the quality of the letter because, in general, the recommendee is much better tuned in to what they did than the recommender is. Remember, professors see hundreds of students come and go, and have probably written letters for dozens of them. Nobody knows what you've done better than you do. It's also a given that the person requesting the LOR will provide all necessary supporting documents (i.e. performance reports written on the recommendee, papers written by them, etc.), so it's good to have those ready.

The idea is to tee it up for the person who's submitting the letter on your behalf. Providing them with a 70% solution to begin with versus asking them to start with a blank piece of paper can make a huge difference in their level of enthusiasm and timeliness of the delivery. The integrity of the process is preserved because the draft is theirs to change/modify as they see fit with the understanding that you won't see the final version they submit on your behalf. The easier you make it for them, the more likely they are to come through for you.

While this may seem a little odd to someone who's not used to it, I think you'll find that most potential references will respond very favorably to "Would you be willing to submit a LOR on my behalf? I'd be more than happy to provide you with a draft to start with." versus just "Will you write me a LOR?"

Good luck to you.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Fred Garvin