Deadline is Friday, no response from professor.

[tem11]

I have already submitted everything for my application to the University of Oxford. I'm just waiting on the one professor to complete her recommendation.

I previously studied at the University of Oxford and think it would be a great advantage to have a recommendation from an Oxford professor. I contacted this professor about being a reference months ago and she's already completed recommendations for 3 graduate schools in a timely fashion. I sent her an email on the 1st reminding her of Oxford's Nov. 20th deadline and she was very enthusiastic about my returning to Oxford. She said she already has a general letter written for me from previous applications but that she's so excited by the prospect of me coming back that she wanted to tailor her letter to the specific program I'm applying for and asked me a bunch of program-specific questions. I responded promptly. Sounds great, right?

Well, it's been over two weeks since I've last heard from her. I sent her an email last week asking if she wanted to see my personal statement or anything to help her tailor it and she didn't respond. I emailed her again on Saturday and said, "Don't forget about Friday's deadline! Let me know if you need anything further from me." and haven't heard back. I'm getting very, very antsy about this. I've contacted a professor as a backup, but he's not from Oxford and I was really hoping that this particular recommendation would give me an edge.

I highly doubt I could get in touch with her by calling the UK as she's never in her office. I don't want to pester her with email after email. I don't want to just delete her as a reference and use my backup reference because there's still a few days left. I'm not sure if it's better to have this recommendation arrive late or not have it arrive at all and use someone else.

Any recommendations? (No pun intended...)

Edited November 17, 2009 by TerriM

[eucalyptus]

I'd say you have a couple of options. If you think she'll eventually come through and write your letter, even if it's a little late, I'd say just stick with her. Call her even though she might not be in her office - your phone message can't get lost in her inbox, and she's less likely to ignore it than an email. The program you're applying to is definitely used to late LORs (they all are!) and if she gets it in soon, I doubt it'll affect your application at all. Is this prof in the same department that you're applying to? Because if so, or if she knows people on the admissions committee, there's a good chance that they'll just call her or email her to ask for her opinion of you, and she may not even have to write a letter (or they'll ask her for the letter directly, which she won't ignore!).

If you're not sure if she'll ever write the letter (which it doesn't sound like), get your other potential letter-writer to write one, and then if the Oxford prof comes through you'll have an extra letter - not so bad, really.

[tarski]

Won't answer her phone and won't answer emails- sounds like calling the department secretary would be worth a shot. Ask the secretary if your prof is sick, tell her about your troubles getting in touch with her, etc.

[tem11]

Thanks for the responses. I think I'll give her until the end of the day tomorrow and if I don't hear anything, I'll send one more email and also call the porter's lodge and leave a message. That should give her all day Thursday to submit it and if she hasn't, I'll have my backup send in his reference Friday morning. The most annoying part is that she already has a letter written for me- she's the one who wanted to tailor it further.

Nothing like waiting until the last minute!

[tem11]

Update:

She submitted the recommendation this evening without any further emails or phone calls. Phew!

[LateAntique]

Update:

She submitted the recommendation this evening without any further emails or phone calls. Phew!

That was close! Congrats on getting it in.

[joro]

I'm going through that exact same nightmare right now. I'm glad you got yours sorted out!!

[Pamphilia]

Agh.

The whole time I was reading all of these sad flaky-LOR threads, I was thinking, "Oh, poor things! Good thing I have three solid and dependable letter writers!"

And now it is the evening before my first deadline, and one of my letter writers has not submitted her letters, nor responded to my emails for weeks. She said over a month ago that she was working on my letters and almost ready to submit. Then silence. Nothing since.

All of my applications are finished and submitted, with the exception of this one person's letters! I'm about to pull all my hair out.

[joro]

Agh.

The whole time I was reading all of these sad flaky-LOR threads, I was thinking, "Oh, poor things! Good thing I have three solid and dependable letter writers!"

And now it is the evening before my first deadline, and one of my letter writers has not submitted her letters, nor responded to my emails for weeks. She said over a month ago that she was working on my letters and almost ready to submit. Then silence. Nothing since.

All of my applications are finished and submitted, with the exception of this one person's letters! I'm about to pull all my hair out.

I have 2 very dependable letter writers and one who is very busy. Still no word from the 3rd and final one and my letter is due in 15 days.

[Ziz]

I have 2 very dependable letter writers and one who is very busy. Still no word from the 3rd and final one and my letter is due in 15 days.

I have exactly the same situation. I'm trying to remind myself that 15 days is quite a bit of time. However, if I have not heard from him by the 12th I have a backup I can ask, luckily.

[Pamphilia]

Agh.

The whole time I was reading all of these sad flaky-LOR threads, I was thinking, "Oh, poor things! Good thing I have three solid and dependable letter writers!"

And now it is the evening before my first deadline, and one of my letter writers has not submitted her letters, nor responded to my emails for weeks. She said over a month ago that she was working on my letters and almost ready to submit. Then silence. Nothing since.

All of my applications are finished and submitted, with the exception of this one person's letters! I'm about to pull all my hair out.

Great googly moogly. She JUST submitted her letters. I called her up today (the deadline) and she was like, "Well, yeah, of course I'm finishing them right now! Don't panic!" I wanted to say, "Good god, woman! Would it be so difficult for you to respond to ONE email instead of going totally silent for three weeks????" But instead I went on about how it's ME and I'm so paranoid and am just a worrier, etc. I was...pretty annoyed though.

By the way, this is like my favorite person of all time and I want to BE her when I grow up. Only more timely and organized.

Phew. At least they're in.

[joro]

Great googly moogly. She JUST submitted her letters. I called her up today (the deadline) and she was like, "Well, yeah, of course I'm finishing them right now! Don't panic!" I wanted to say, "Good god, woman! Would it be so difficult for you to respond to ONE email instead of going totally silent for three weeks????" But instead I went on about how it's ME and I'm so paranoid and am just a worrier, etc. I was...pretty annoyed though.

By the way, this is like my favorite person of all time and I want to BE her when I grow up. Only more timely and organized.

Phew. At least they're in.

Congrats, I hope this is the same case with my own LOR.

[ridgey]

I'm joining this club. Yup, one of my letter writers is right now in the process of missing my first deadline.

I confirmed with this person three weeks ago that she'd write for me (we'd already discussed it) and she told me she would. Said she was busy and wouldn't be able to get to it till next week (i.e. two weeks ago), but that it would be fine. I set up the notifications, wrote a couple of emails about deadlines and when I'd be giving her material for paper applications, and apologised for taking up her time. No reply. I email about something else. No reply.

Now, she's incredibly busy, I get that. She wrote letters for me last year, too, so I know the effort that's involved and I appreciate it. But my other recommenders are just as busy. And, as they have both demonstrated, once a letter is drafted, it takes about 15 minutes to upload into 6 online application systems.

I'm not particularly stressed just yet; I know that schools are reasonably generous with accepting letters after the deadline. My stress is likely to increase soon, though.

[sew8d]

ME TOOOOOOOOOO.

I even asked him if he'd write the LOR back in JUNE, and he had everything (links) he needed by October 5. And he missed a Dec 1 deadline and hasn't responded to emails in the past couple of weeks (although was good about responding to prior ones), and has no office voicemail, and the secretary of the dept can't do much to contact him for me.

I'm considering the 2.5 hour drive to ambush him in person, although seeing the comments that lots of schools will take LORs late is reassuring. Especially since this first deadline was to my undergrad school, which is where this prof is! All he'd really have to do is print it out and hand it over to the adcomm down the hall.

oh venting.

[joro]

ME TOOOOOOOOOO.

I even asked him if he'd write the LOR back in JUNE, and he had everything (links) he needed by October 5. And he missed a Dec 1 deadline and hasn't responded to emails in the past couple of weeks (although was good about responding to prior ones), and has no office voicemail, and the secretary of the dept can't do much to contact him for me.

I'm considering the 2.5 hour drive to ambush him in person, although seeing the comments that lots of schools will take LORs late is reassuring. Especially since this first deadline was to my undergrad school, which is where this prof is! All he'd really have to do is print it out and hand it over to the adcomm down the hall.

oh venting.

That is how I was reassured last time..."Oh don't worry, the schools expect late LORs". But just how late exactly? Maybe 1 - 2 weeks late, but it can't be 2 - 3 months I'm assuming.

[sew8d]

That is how I was reassured last time..."Oh don't worry, the schools expect late LORs". But just how late exactly? Maybe 1 - 2 weeks late, but it can't be 2 - 3 months I'm assuming.

Heh, I doubt more than 2 weeks is acceptable, but then again, what do I know? Luckily mine will only be a couple of days late for the first deadline school - I managed to FINALLY catch my prof on the phone during his business hours, and he told me he was writing it and it would be sent today. He also made it sound like he thought I was crazy, but I'm just happy to *know* what's going on and that it will be taken care of.

[JerryLandis]

I also recall seeing other people's posts about this and thinking "gee that sucks, I'm glad I asked my professors so early and that they seem to be on top of it." Now it's almost a month after when my last LOR writer told me he would write my letter, and my first (and top choice) application is due next week. I'm telling myself it will all be fine - the guy is a really friendly, responsible, professional person, and has been handing things in for deadlines for the past 40 years or so. He is probably just taking his time before the deadline. But still, it's nervewracking to think that maybe he has forgotten, or that maybe the more recent emails I sent him went into the spam folder or something. I think that his generation is not really used to email communication and this might explain why professors often don't bother to respond to emails for weeks at a time. I don't want to be rude and pester him to do this favor for me more quickly, but then I also don't want to be too nice and complacent, and have incomplete applications.

[rising_star]

I had a letter arrive a month late and got admitted to that department with funding. Don't despair guys and gals!

[Ziz]

Oh geez this is now happening to me too. I asked him in mid-October, got a response in early november that he would be happy to write for me. Sent him the info he needed, submitted the apps, etc. by Nov 13 (for December 15 deadlines) and now he's MIA. I have followed up a number of times but unfortunately there is no way to get his phone number without him giving it to me (which requires him to write back to me!) so I am a slave to email. I have a backup referee but it would be a professional reference, not academic so I'm hesitant to include it unless absolutely necessary.

[Ziz]

Wow clearly posting here is a good luck charm. Not an hour after I posted did that prof finally get back to me and say he would have everything in by the deadline!

[joro]

Wow clearly posting here is a good luck charm. Not an hour after I posted did that prof finally get back to me and say he would have everything in by the deadline!

I guess I need to post more to get my good luck charm working. The Professor still hasn't responded and now I emailed one of the RAs I know who is currently working with this Professor for a contact number. But he hasn't emailed me so I have thoughts that he asked the Professor if he could and the Professor told him not to.

[cheesethunder]

Great googly moogly. She JUST submitted her letters. I called her up today (the deadline) and she was like, "Well, yeah, of course I'm finishing them right now! Don't panic!" I wanted to say, "Good god, woman! Would it be so difficult for you to respond to ONE email instead of going totally silent for three weeks????" But instead I went on about how it's ME and I'm so paranoid and am just a worrier, etc. I was...pretty annoyed though.

By the way, this is like my favorite person of all time and I want to BE her when I grow up. Only more timely and organized.

Phew. At least they're in.

hahahhha good god women! i love it. yea they always act so coy when youre freaking out like that ......mine got it in at 12 when it was due at 4.......not cool. i got no sleep that night just kept checking my account ove ran dover and over

[joro]

hahahhha good god women! i love it. yea they always act so coy when youre freaking out like that ......mine got it in at 12 when it was due at 4.......not cool. i got no sleep that night just kept checking my account ove ran dover and over

I did that last year and just gave up after it became a few days, then weeks.

Edited December 8, 2009 by joro

[gazelle]

One of my writers is nearly a week late now on making the early deadline. I sent another email two days ago, and no reply.

I'm starting to get more than a little apprehensive, because I want to call admissions after she submits it to just make sure that they have received absolutely everything they need from me so I can totally close that application out in my mind and just forget about it until I hear the results. Not to mention now I want to ask them if I will still be considered as an early applicant so I can get an earlier decision.

[Ziz]

One of my writers is nearly a week late now on making the early deadline. I sent another email two days ago, and no reply.

I'm starting to get more than a little apprehensive, because I want to call admissions after she submits it to just make sure that they have received absolutely everything they need from me so I can totally close that application out in my mind and just forget about it until I hear the results. Not to mention now I want to ask them if I will still be considered as an early applicant so I can get an earlier decision.

I was going to say that maybe you should give them a call to let them know you have done everything in your power to make sure the prof knew the deadline etc and what effect will this have on your app. Just so they know you haven't been complacent.