LOR troubles

[ssynny]

Hi all,

 

I sent out all my emails asking people to write me letters of recommendation in September for Jan 15th deadlines. I know and worked with 2 of the three writers for a couple of years, but I took a chance with the third and went with a professor who knew me well only in a classroom setting. When I asked him if he could write me a letter, he said sure! Fast forward through a few months of me sending him info and materials with no response. But I wasn't expecting a bunch of responses anyway. I sent him an email on Monday letting him know that the deadlines are this Thursday. After all these months of emails, he sends:

 

Hi,

Thanks for the reminder. It had fallen off my radar.

Maybe you should stop by for a second so we can talk? That will help me write the letter. 

 

Okay, great he finally responds. But I'm not at the school anymore.... I immediately reply and tell him I'm not there and provided him with my phone number and Skype ID so we can talk. No response. I called his office today and left him a voicemail. No response. It worries me that he needs more info to write a good letter, but I can't get in contact with him! Can I do anything before the deadline to help this situation? Idk if calling again tomorrow is worth it...

 

I know a lot of people say you really just need 2 letters in on time so committees can begin to evaluate you, but I only have one letter in so far. The other guy is being a butt too

[fuzzylogician]

I think it's nice of him to want to talk to you, it means that he wants to help and do a good job. You say he only knows you from a classroom setting, so I'm not surprised that he wants you to tell him more about yourself so he can write a more detailed letter. I'm not sure why you are worried about that.

 

I'm not sure calling is the most effective way to go. I'd put together an info sheet for him with the major things that he should know about you and that would be good to have mentioned in the LOR. This would include (in no particular order) such things as your research interests, where you are applying and why it's a good fit, relevant research and coursework you've done, your GPA, your major, any awards or other interesting details about your background. And then mention as many specifics about the class(es) you took with him as possible, broken down by class if you had several. The letter will be better the more details he can put in there. So, anything from interesting questions you asked or discussions you started to your paper topic and grade is relevant. For example, if one of the topics you wrote a term paper about informed a honors thesis or your research interests, mention it. If the reading you did helped shape your decision to go to grad school, that's important. And so on. Help him get to know you better and give specific, detailed examples. That will make for a better, stronger letter. I'd say make it an easy to read bullet-point list, about a page long and definitely less than two. Organize it by topic if you can. Offer to talk on the phone/skype as well and of course say you are available to answer any questions and provide other information if it is helpful. 

[ssynny]

I never meant I was worried about him wanting to talk to me. It's nice that he does. I'm worried that he is looking to talk a day before the deadline. I gave him all the info that you mentioned in october, including my SoP for both schools later on. The deadline is now and he took this long to get back to me (not a single email to me since september) and is not responsive when I try to contact him. I still wanted a rec from him since I loved his class, did very well, think he's a great professor, and was praised by him for doing a good job the whole semester. The info that you provided is great and I found similar suggestions on other threads in the forum when other people were asking about how to request a LoR. But I literally sent him 2 organized pages of info to help him know me and my interests. It's looking like either I'll get an impersonal rec or none at all. Is there anything else I should be doing to prevent these things from happening?

[fuzzylogician]

Look, the fact that he will do it last minute does not entail that it won't be a good letter. It just means it causes you a lot of anxiety in the mean time. I'm sure this professor has a lot of other obligations and your application may have a different priority for him than for you. The fact that he didn't get the letter done 4 months before the deadline or even a week before the deadline really doesn't mean anything. This sounds like an experienced prof and therefore he must have existing examples of these kinds of letters. It wouldn't take him too long to write you one, certainly he wouldn't need several days, just a free hour to do it in. He's contacted you and asked for info that might help him, which suggests to me that he is trying to do a good job as much as possible. I suggest resending him the info you've put together and offering to talk on the phone at his convenience. Anyway, as you say, common wisdom has it that if you have two strong letters then a weaker third one won't hurt too much.

 

There is nothing much you can do to prevent this from happening again, if "this" means having someone be non-responsive or submit a letter last minute. In fact, I am going to go out on a (small) limb here and bet you that it's almost certain to happen again. Some people aren't good with email and lots of people do things last minute. If "this" means needing to depend on someone you don't know very well for a LOR, then the way to fix it is to network more broadly. But let me warn you, even if you have great supporters who will write you super strong letters, nothing guarantees that they'll be great with email or that they won't do everything last minute (or past the last minute, sometimes) or that they won't disappear right when there is an important deadline for you because of a personal emergency of their own. Things happen. 

[TakeruK]

I just want to second fuzzy's advice in this thread, it is spot on. It also does not sound like either party (you or this prof) has done anything wrong. I think the main lesson to be learned here (if you are looking for one for "next time"), it is that professors often need reminders to put things back to the top of their inbox, so resending all the stuff you prepared for him is a good idea. I know it's stressful, but look at it this way -- at least you are just resending stuff you already have, it would be a lot worse if you had to pull all this together within one day! I also agree with fuzzy that it really should only take them one hour to write your LOR, especially if they have a lot of experience doing this and can just base it off one of the many they have written (just have to add the personal details!).

 

Also, I think it's important to remember that in academia, 1 day before the deadline is the same as 10 days (or more) before the deadline. In my experience, we are always submitting abstracts, LORs, problem sets, etc. right before the deadline. For some people, I would even advise putting off starting a homework set until a day or two before the deadline to prevent our inner perfectionists from wanting to spend the whole week on it and getting nothing else done. 

[ssynny]

So I guess I should start worrying if he doesn't submit. Both schools said their deadlines were hard deadlines for all materials including recs.

[isilya]

So I guess I should start worrying if he doesn't submit. Both schools said their deadlines were hard deadlines for all materials including recs.

Make sure you mention that to him! In general I think a lot of professors assume that deadlines aren't hard for the letter writers, so you should tell him that they definitely are this time.

[ssynny]

Make sure you mention that to him! In general I think a lot of professors assume that deadlines aren't hard for the letter writers, so you should tell him that they definitely are this time.

 

 

So guess what! I sent him one last email letting him know that I was free to talk whenever since the deadline is pretty much now and that all materials, including recs, need to be submitted by then... and he called me this afternoon!  It was a really nice phone call and reminded me why I asked him for a rec in the first place lol. He thought he still had a couple more weeks, so I'm glad I sent him that email.