How long should I wait until I email my recommender asking when they'll upload my letter?

[FLguy305]

I asked my former supervisor at my last job if she would write me a letter of recommendation for my application to grad school. As part of the application process for admission, I must have 2 letters of recommendation. When I submitted the actual application to the university my recommender was notified via email with instructions on how to upload a letter of recommendation on my behalf. 

So, I applied exactly 8 days ago.. My 1st recommender was kind of enough to submit her letter of rec already, so now I'm waiting on this second one. 

Being that it's been 8 days since she has gotten an email prompting her to submit a letter of rec, how long do you think is appropriate for the recommender to write their letter? 

I'm probably being impatient, but I want it to be uploaded already, so I can get my decision on wheter I get admitted or not. Would it be too soon if I emailed her and gently remind her about the letter of recommendation she is doing as a favor to me? Or should I give it more time, what do u guys think?? I'm dying to have my application complete and get my decision. I won't get my decision until her recommendation letter is uploaded. I don't wanna be annoying and pushy, but I'm afraid may be she forgot--- Advice would be appreciated. 

Edited November 16, 2015 by FLguy305

[fuzzylogician]

Is there a deadline for when the letter needs to be submitted, or does the department have rolling admissions? If it's the former, then depending on when the deadline is, you could send a reminder a week or two before the deadline, but I think your letter writer is completely within her rights to plan on submitting the letter closer to the deadline and not right now. If there are rolling admissions, you could email to explain how that works, and basically tell your recommender that your application will be viewed as soon as her letter is submitted, and that your chances improve the earlier that happens, so could she please do it soon. 

[FLguy305]

4 minutes ago, fuzzylogician said:

Is there a deadline for when the letter needs to be submitted, or does the department have rolling admissions? If it's the former, then depending on when the deadline is, you could send a reminder a week or two before the deadline, but I think your letter writer is completely within her rights to plan on submitting the letter closer to the deadline and not right now. If there are rolling admissions, you could email to explain how that works, and basically tell your recommender that your application will be viewed as soon as her letter is submitted, and that your chances improve the earlier that happens, so could she please do it soon. 

It's rolling admission, so there is no hard deadline.  Do you think instead of outright asking her if the letter is complete-- I could inform her that I applied and ask her if she's received the email prompt instructing her how to upload the letter? Or does that look too thirsty and desperate? 

[fuzzylogician]

Sure -- don't be demanding, but explain the situation. "Dear X, I wanted to let you know that I've submitted the application to ABC on my end, and now it is waiting for your letter of recommendation to be submitted. You should have received an email prompt with submission instructions on DATE. Please let me know if you haven't received this email. ABC makes admissions decisions on a rolling basis, so my application will be viewed as soon as you submit your letter. Because my admissions chances will be greater the sooner the application is looked at (because fewer spaces will be left open the more time passes), I would appreciate it if you could submit the letter as soon as you can. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you write a stronger letter on my behalf. Thank you very much, -me"

[FLguy305]

10 minutes ago, fuzzylogician said:

Sure -- don't be demanding, but explain the situation. "Dear X, I wanted to let you know that I've submitted the application to ABC on my end, and now it is waiting for your letter of recommendation to be submitted. You should have received an email prompt with submission instructions on DATE. Please let me know if you haven't received this email. ABC makes admissions decisions on a rolling basis, so my application will be viewed as soon as you submit your letter. Because my admissions chances will be greater the sooner the application is looked at (because fewer spaces will be left open the more time passes), I would appreciate it if you could submit the letter as soon as you can. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you write a stronger letter on my behalf. Thank you very much, -me"

You are a dream. Seriously, thank you. thank you.

[FLguy305]

so I wrote my recommender a similar email to the one above and she responded she would have it writeen this week. 

 

I was like "score!!!!!!" 

[FLguy305]

Alright, so unfortunately I'm back to this thread 

Look at my above post. My recommender said she would write "this week" back on Nov. 17th. It's now the 29th and still nothing has been uploaded. Do I email her yet again asking her to upload it? It's going on 2 weeks now since I last asked her to upload it. My goal is to try and be an unintrusive as possible, however she keeps stringing me along. If she can't do it, I just wish she would tell me, so I can ask someone else. 

 

Should I email her one more time? reminding her that she said she'd have it done within the week 2 weeks ago?

 

 

[sjoh197]

I usually prefer to feign "ignorance" in these situations.... 

"I noticed that your letter hasn't been submitted yet. As some people have had trouble with these types of servers actually uploading their document, I just wanted to make sure that you were not having any trouble or that you haven't already tried to submit it and the server failed to pull it up on my end. "

unless you're in computer science... then I guess that won't really fool anyone.