<p>This is primarily directed towards someone who is either a professor or has experienced the same circumstances.</p>
<p>A couple of the profs that are filling out my LORs are being very lax about it. They say that the deadline is rather flexible. I was wondering if having late LORs can really hurt your application. I'm not expecting them to be a MONTH late, but maybe a week at the most?</p>
<p>Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I had one of mine late...I still got accepted.</p>
<p>"Deadline" was Jan 5th...LOR finally submitted around Jan 20th...school told me 3 days later I was accepted.</p>
<p>Wow, it takes your schools only a few weeks to make a decision? Is that usually the case for schools to admit for PhD programs way before the stated decision period?</p>
<p>Deadlines for receiving LORs are extremely lax.
You have no reason to worry.</p>
<p>Not at all. Profs know that December is a terrible month for everyone. It's the unfortunate applicants who must be on time with everything else. Besides, if the LOR runs waayyyy late, profs can always put a phone call through.</p>
<p>I think it's really a program-specific issue. Some schools will look at incomplete applications. Some give an application deadline but don't start looking at any for month. Some begin the selection process the week of the deadline and only if all the necessary information (app, transcript, LOR, test grades) is in.</p>
<p>For your sake you should ask each school you'll be late for. Some might give you some slack if you let them know in advance.</p>