<p>I was just wondering if that is the trend for professors, to submit on the day of. It's certainly not the case with all of my recommenders, but if one hasn't submitted the online letter by now for an early January due date, I can only assume they are either planning to send it on the day of, not send it on time, or <em>shudder</em>, not send it at all. Some professors are very difficult to get in contact with. I was in contact with this professor throughout the semester. Now I'm just a tad bit worried. I certainly should hope that my acceptance does not hinge on this letter.</p>
<p>one of my profs didn’t send them out until 3 days before the due date. it’s not a huge deal…just make sure they get them in. if they said they would write for you, you should let them know about the deadlines often. there’s nothing wrong with that.</p>
<p>Yes it is normal and you should not let it stress you out. Most professors know that schools do not finish gathering all of the materials until a couple of weeks after the deadline. Also, most schools indicate that supplemental materials can come in a bit past the deadline. Just make sure it is not more than a week or so late.</p>
<p>yes it’s super normal, one prof told me up front he will not send it until 2-3 days before the deadline. and I even had to remind one of my profs to send it after the deadline…</p>
<p>(the school told me missing one letter from XXX)</p>
<p>My Professor still has not submitted a letter of recommendation for me. He’s the only one that still hasn’t sent it in. The due date for 4 of the schools I applied to was Dec 15…</p>
<p>I’m seriously going insane over this.</p>
<p>Letters of rec are routinely sent close to the deadline, on the deadline, and after the deadline.</p>
<p>What applicants need to realize is that in most cases, late letters of rec are not a problem at all. They are expected, and late letters do not reflect on the applicant.</p>
<p>I understand that late letters are expected, but how late can they be? Is there a point where a late letter of rec is just unacceptable?</p>
<p>Well, it is certainly not acceptable if it makes your application incomplete at the time it is reviewed.</p>
<p>ambiance:</p>
<p>I would say over two weeks is completely unacceptable. In your case, the deadline came right before Christmas break so most schools will not be reviewing until after anyway. However, I would email the recommenders in a couple of days to just make sure they are aware of the deadline. This depends on how often you have been emailing them, because if you have already contacted them, further inquiry might just annoy them. If this is the first time, I think it is appropriate just to mention something. I always phrased it so it sounded like a reminder/update instead of an accusation, so don’t say that the school hasn’t received anything and the deadline has passed. Instead, just present the email in an informal tone. </p>
<p>I have a feeling the person is on break and won’t answer the email anyway, but it is NOT OK to be this late. How early did you/your graduate schools send him/her the recommendation information? I gave all of my recommenders a heads up months in advance, and the actual links to submit the recommendation 3 weeks before the deadline. The thing is, I got three interviews within 2 weeks of my submission date, so it is important to get it in before they start reviewing. You have no idea when the committee is actually meeting, and I do not know what a Dec. 15 deadline means. It could be that they wait until after break to start reviewing or that they try to get some applications reviewed beforehand.</p>
<p>MaceVindaloo:</p>
<p>I spoke with this Professor at the end of June. Sent him all my information in mid-September and sent a few reminders with a listing of due dates (also any special instructions) in November and this month too. I was done with all my applications in November. All my recs, but this one have submitted the letter of rec for me.</p>
<p>I would expect that the committee will not be reviewing till after the first week in January.</p>
<p>ambiance:</p>
<p>Yup, I think you will not miss the review period and I suspect the professor will get the recommendations in right after break. My recommendations were a week late and the professor mentioned that admissions committee take a couple of weeks to gather the information, so it is fine if the deadline has passed. </p>
<p>Since you have already contacted your professor, I think it is a good idea to wait until after break. I have never heard of someone flat out forgetting an obligation such as this, so I think pestering the person would only make the situation worse. I do think that you should send an ‘update’ email to the professor after the first week or so in January. I would not be happy if Jan. 14th rolled around and my application was still incomplete.</p>
<p>@ambiance: It’s not just you. I have TWO recommenders completely AWOL…and all but two of my schools had Dec. 1 deadlines. Argh.</p>
<p>I’m really glad they encouraged me to apply this year. What better use of my $700 than to pay ETS to certify that I can add and speak English, and then to pay various departmental secretaries to collect the paperwork and hide it in a filing cabinet. Next round, I may well be applying with zero references from undergrad, despite having worked for two of the biggest names in my field and producing publishable work. Argh!</p>
<p>But supposing I could get them off their butts sometime before Valentine’s Day…is there still a chance of getting looked at if you’re incomplete when the committee meets? (I’ve got a good app otherwise.)</p>
<p>At some point, applications that are incomplete because of late letters cannot be considered. I think a month past the “official” deadline is about at that point, if not already past it.</p>
<p>And I have to wonder: yes, professors are busy people, but how do you take a letter seriously from someone who does not turn in the LOR within a reasonable amount of time beyond the formal deadline? One of my recommenders is so busy her schedule fills up months in advance, yet she still got my letters submitted within a month of my request.</p>
<p>2 of my letter writers sent all of my letters in at once, one of them gets them in right before the deadline. She told me she wouldn’t be offended if I send her emails a week before the deadline, listing the school(s) and deadline with the message “just checking.” So far, she hasn’t turned in a single one late.</p>
<p>But yeah, professors are slow sometimes.</p>
<p>My H is a math professor. He just mentioned the other day how it has become more labor intensive for his to deal with LORs. It used to be he’d draft one and then send to front office, who would have the list of places the student wanted it sent to. Now, with the on line systems, he’s stuck doing all the work that the office did before. So if it’s taking the profs up until the due date to get them out, chill and cut them a break.</p>
<p>
That’s unusual. My recommenders just gave all their online info (log-ins, etc.) to the office/their assistants, who then took care of everything besides the actual letter, just like before.</p>
<p>Also, when I added another graduate school to my list and updated my recommenders on it, they just submitted the additional letter themselves, and it took them all of 10 minutes. I don’t see the online submission of LORs as a considerable enough inconvenience to contribute to late letters.</p>
<p>Because the online forms send a confirmation, it’s easy to see how long it takes to fill out the letter. My one recommender averaged a bit over 8 minutes/school, and he’s in industry, so this may have been the first time he’d seen these forms.</p>
<p>I know it’s annoying when there’s a pile of them, but it can’t take that much longer than the paper version. You don’t have to print anything…and they would have made you check the stupid boxes anyway.</p>
<p>Nope. A lot of them send them in late. But don’t worry about it since no one looks at the apps till after Xmas break anyway. Besides when your profs send in your recs is out of your control and they know that.</p>
<p>With budget cuts, many professors are lacking administrative support they previously had. In addition, administrative help is primarily dedicated to helping with ongoing teaching and grant support. LOR support is relatively low on the priority list for many departments providing administrative help to profs. The online systems can take quite a bit more time, due to the multiple re-entry of data that must be continually re-typed (many online forms do not accept cut and paste entries!),</p>
<p>It is also critical that students select LOR writers who actually know them and who will place their LOR higher on their priority of to do items. I am frequently inundated by requests from students I barely know. I often indicate that I would not be the best LOR writer for them, but if they are desperate for a LOR, I sometimes give into pressure and agree. However, these LORs are a much lower priority for me than for students I know well and actively support. </p>
<p>Lesson:
- Profs are busy and need friendly reminders that are accompanied by CV/resume material to make writing that LOR easier for them to finish!
AND - Students need to select profs who actually know and support them!</p>
<p>@ambiance, have you tried contacting your professor directly by phone? A busy professor may be receiving numerous emails! If things are really down to the wire, and you’ve lost communication, I don’t think it’s too forward to give a professor a phone call reminder, right? You might check with the department for a contact number if you don’t already have one.</p>
<p>I think there is great advice in this thread. Many of us seem to be in this situation. Ultimately we all just want admission into our desired program, so we are in a sense placing our hopes and dreams in small part in the hands of our recommenders. I think grad school admissions committees probably recognize this and should give the according leeway for this aspect of the application. Both the applicant and the professor are probably doing the best they can.</p>