<p>I gave her notice for the past 2 weeks.
She has my grades CV, SOP, etcetc she just needs to write it up. I gave her today this morning the final notice. No answer...</p>
<p>My god Iam panicing. I wanna believe that she'll write it up and submit it in but man the weekend and everything ugh....</p>
<p>Anybody in similar position as me?</p>
<p>Im gonna loose some sleep this weekend....</p>
<p>Oh are schools okay with late LORs???</p>
<p>Im applying to UIndiana, UMichigan, UChicago, Stanford, Princeton and they have Dec1 deadline.</p>
<p>^Even if the online submission deadlines are strict, professors could still send paper recs to the programs.</p>
<p>Submission deadlines are not hard deadlines, because a lot of administrative work goes into organizing them and getting them to the faculty who read them. And since every faculty member knows this, they often send recommendation letters late, to the extreme consternation of applicants. They do this with grants, too, and with dissertation advisory committee reports, and dissertations. They do not believe in deadlines, and generally they are right that deadlines are more or less imaginary, and there is nothing you can do except fib to them about the deadlines in the first place.</p>
<p>If the letter hasn’t been submitted after the deadline, you could contact the program and find out what the real, hard deadline is. For one of my programs, a letter was missing (a result of the mail, I think, and not recommender lateness), and they told me they needed it by Jan 3, when the application deadline had been Dec 8.</p>
<p>This happened to me once, and it was fine. They understood it was out of my control and they accepted the letter when my professor sent it a week late.</p>
<p>So people who handed it in late did you email all the gradschools to verify that its okay to hand in late? cuz im beginning to think i need to take some action</p>
<p>I’m in a worse situation. Two of my letter writers have waited to the last minute to submit a letter, this after having months to do it. Despite the assurances that they will get them done this weekend, I am freaking out that they will not get the letters done, deadlines will pass, and all the horrors that follow. Is there anything I can do if the deadline passes with no letter(s)?</p>
<p>I am in a similar situation…two of my recommenders are submitting their letters on monday. The letters are done but because of their trips and the thanksgiving break they are doing it on monday …Good thing is that I see them everyday so I can push them on monday to get it done…Professors, especially the big names, tend to finish their stuffs at the very last moment…</p>
<p>Situations like the ones you all describe are why I wonder if schools try to take it upon themselves to contact a professor who has not yet submitted a recommendation letter for a prospective student? It seems to me that an applicant has already fulfilled his/her responsibilities by completing the application and following up with any recommenders. After that, the recommendation letters become the one part of the application that the applicant really has no control over. We can exercise good judgment in choosing our recommenders, but even competent people like professors flake sometimes, and it would be a shame for an otherwise qualified person to suffer because of it. ;]</p>
<p>i’m not in a similar situation anymore…my letters are now all in. :-)</p>
<p>i think its best to keep “harassing” (continually reminding) your LOR writers about the deadlines and trust that they’ll eventually get them in. it’s really out of your hands…</p>
Often they will, yes. That’s what happened in my situation.</p>
<p>But overall, it’s really not a big deal. The programs are very familiar with this yearly occurrence, and your letters will eventually be sent in.</p>
<p>I got into a top 10 program even though my professor sent the online LOR almost 3 weeks late… I guess being a few days late won’t really matter.</p>
<p>As one of the letter writers, I can offer this viewpoint. I not only have to write letters for current students, I am also writing letters for many past students as they hit their next stages of their education/career. In addition, I have all of my current “day job” obligations. LORs are just gratis work. I am most happy to do this for students who have worked directly with me, but I also write many other LORs for students I know much less well. These latter letters are written at a lower priority after my “day job” obligations. I always recommend students to ask for at least one extra LOR than required for their applications.</p>
<p>^^Exactly, ParAlum. Plus you have a holiday thrown in there.</p>
<p>For the record, however, some applications explicitly say that they do not allow four recommendations. My D has four “easy” LOR writers (they know her work well and were excited when they heard of her plans); however, she cannot use one of them for at least two of her applications. The online application procedure – which I think is a tremendous improvement over the old paper-based method – sends out recommendation requests automatically when the student applies. I don’t know that there’s a way to change the name of one of the recommenders once the application has been submitted.</p>
<p>Although the process is stressful for students, they just have to trust that their LOR writers will come through. They should not read anything into the fact that their letters have not yet arrived (say, that they have low priority). Some professors like to get the LOR out of the way before they forget about it, while others wait until the last minute – it’s often a matter of personality. </p>
<p>It’s okay to remind professors of deadlines, but don’t ride them. You don’t want your LOR written by an annoyed prof.</p>
<p>Most schools I applied, it said you cannot change the LOR writers once submitted. I agree with MWFN, better it be late than be written by an annoyed prof!</p>
<p>Earlier today I was in a similar situation, LoR due 12/1 and need one more letter submitted. What’s terrible is that my professor agreed to write the letter during mid-September, after I had prepared the SOP, CV, etc.</p>
<p>After 3 email reminders, 3 recommendation form re-sends, and even telling another faculty member to remind him, he finally wrote it today. I think professors like to procrastinate as much as students.</p>
<p>Due to stress yesterday, I decided to add another recommender in case this professor could not meet the deadline. This professor finished my LoR in a few hours - I am hoping she wrote more than a few sentences. :rolleyes:</p>
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<p>This is a very important statement that I am glad you brought up.</p>