Are professors on vacation or something?

SDN Members don't see this ad. (About Ads)

I sent e-mails to my LOR writers and I have heard nothing back from any of them. This was about a week ago, should i resend? I am on good terms with all of them, so it doesnt make sense for them not to respond. Im hoping they are just on vacation. For anyone here who has used interfolio, when you send a letter request, does interfoilio send you an email or notice or something to let you know your request was sent successfully? I sent a letter request to a physician and didn't get anykind of confirmatiom. SO I sent it 5 more times. I hope she doesnt open her inbox and see 5 letter request.

Originally Posted by Lui Kang

I sent e-mails to my LOR writers and I have heard nothing back from any of them. This was about a week ago, should i resend? I am on good terms with all of them, so it doesnt make sense for them not to respond. Im hoping they are just on vacation. For anyone here who has used interfolio, when you send a letter request, does interfoilio send you an email or notice or something to let you know your request was sent successfully? I sent a letter request to a physician and didn't get anykind of confirmatiom. SO I sent it 5 more times. I hope she doesnt open her inbox and see 5 letter request.

I feel your pain. One of my favorite professors hasn't responded to my e-mail in a week, while everyone else seemed to reply within a few hours.

I'm using interfolio and no, I do not believe I recieved any sort of confirmation when they sent the request to my letter writers.

One of my professors is on sabbatical and is refusing to help anyone with admissions during this time.
Good thing I haven't had them for the majority of my undergrad courses of one of my majors...
...oh wait.

Have you talked to these people in person, or are you just sending emails?
Don't count on every one of your LOR writers. I had a professor bail on me completely after agreeing to write one in person. I learned later that she was in the middle of transferring jobs, but at the time I was pretty peeved.

lol I took to making personal visits to hurry them up. Of course, I'd come in with a question completely unrelated to the letter then I'd drop the bomb in a polite way.

Originally Posted by saveourpens

lol I took to making personal visits to hurry them up. Of course, I'd come in with a question completely unrelated to the letter then I'd drop the bomb in a polite way.

This.

Originally Posted by penguinism

Have you talked to these people in person, or are you just sending emails?
Don't count on every one of your LOR writers. I had a professor bail on me completely after agreeing to write one in person. I learned later that she was in the middle of transferring jobs, but at the time I was pretty peeved.

I'm a reapplicant. The people who I asked for letters are the same ones who wrote them for me last year. They also said it was no biggie to resubmitt. They just have not responded.

Originally Posted by saveourpens

lol I took to making personal visits to hurry them up. Of course, I'd come in with a question completely unrelated to the letter then I'd drop the bomb in a polite way.

Would but im 200 miles from campus.

Originally Posted by Lui Kang

I sent e-mails to my LOR writers and I have heard nothing back from any of them. This was about a week ago, should i resend? I am on good terms with all of them, so it doesnt make sense for them not to respond. Im hoping they are just on vacation. For anyone here who has used interfolio, when you send a letter request, does interfoilio send you an email or notice or something to let you know your request was sent successfully? I sent a letter request to a physician and didn't get anykind of confirmatiom. SO I sent it 5 more times. I hope she doesnt open her inbox and see 5 letter request.

A week ago? Consider yourself lucky cause one of my letters took 1 year.

Originally Posted by Lui Kang

I sent e-mails to my LOR writers and I have heard nothing back from any of them. This was about a week ago, should i resend? I am on good terms with all of them, so it doesnt make sense for them not to respond. Im hoping they are just on vacation. For anyone here who has used interfolio, when you send a letter request, does interfoilio send you an email or notice or something to let you know your request was sent successfully? I sent a letter request to a physician and didn't get anykind of confirmatiom. SO I sent it 5 more times. I hope she doesnt open her inbox and see 5 letter request.

I am only familiar with my state school... but I do know that our institutional contracts for our professors expired 4 days following the last day of finals... which was 2 weeks ago for us. It is possible that your school uses a similar system and your professors contracts are up for a few weeks/month/few months until school starts back up.
(I know this because I was trying to get a committee together for my defense and had to get my committee to volunteer their time because they were "off contract" and weren't obligated to do anything university related)

and Yes, interfolio does send a confirmation when they receive a LOR. Additionally, you can check the status of your letters if you log in on Interfolio.

It's around this time that professor's are doing their research and have no time for student emails (I'm having the same problem) >

Originally Posted by david199380

It's around this time that professor's are doing their research and have no time for student emails (I'm having the same problem) >

Let this be a lesson to anyone reading~. Get the letters 6 months in advance if you can~. Saved me a ton of trouble. But, this is a common happening, and I don't mean anything negative towards people who have done it.

Anyway, yeah, some professors are just like that. <---

Good luck on the letters!

It's also conference season- the professor I work for left the day after finals and will be in the lab/ her office a total of 4 days in the next 2 months. I often wait two weeks and then just send a gentle reminder "in case my email got lost in your inbox". Talk to people- some profs are notorious for being slow/last minute with these things, they might need a phone call to get the ball rolling.

Oh and don't be an idiot like me and email people the Friday before a long weekend. They'll ignore "non-essential" communications all weekend and by the time they come in Tuesday your email is buried under hundreds of others. I forgot it was a) Friday and b) Memorial Day weekend until after I hit send.

Word of advice to freshmen: Always befriend enough professors that you can afford to have a few of them not reply to your emails. It happens, a lot.

Originally Posted by brandonh4

Word of advice to freshmen: Always befriend enough professors that you can afford to have a few of them not reply to your emails. It happens, a lot.

+1 for amazing advice.

Originally Posted by GreenStyle

Let this be a lesson to anyone reading~. Get the letters 6 months in advance if you can~. Saved me a ton of trouble. But, this is a common happening, and I don't mean anything negative towards people who have done it.

Anyway, yeah, some professors are just like that. <---

Good luck on the letters!

If you're applying next year, take what GreenStyle said to heart.

Start asking for those LORs early on during the Spring semester and ask for more than you need. You're always going to find that professor who keeps putting your letter up until the last day.

Also give them a deadline that is at least 1 month ahead of your actual deadline.

For instance, if you want to have all of your letters in your file before August 1st, tell them that the deadline for those letters is July 1st. It gives you enough time to "push" your professors in case they forgot about you.

To conclude all this, whenever you need something from someone else (LOR, favor, a ride, etc) and you're not paying them for whatever they're doing, don't expect too much from them and make sure you give them plenty of time to accomplish their task.

Originally Posted by saveourpens

lol I took to making personal visits to hurry them up. Of course, I'd come in with a question completely unrelated to the letter then I'd drop the bomb in a polite way.

Sadly this is the only way.