Supervisor took only 4 hours for LoR... Good?

[salemstein]

I just asked my supervisor for a LOR and she turned it around super quick, like within a few hours. I have a very positive relation with her and vis versa, but the turnaround speed has been on my mind for a while now. Now, I may be a bit neurotic but could that be a bad thing? Like maybe she did a quick 5 sentence lor or maybe did she take someone else's she already wrote and just inserted my name instead? What should I do? I dont want to question her on what she wrote but at the same time ...

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[NotASerialKiller]

I dont want to question her on what she wrote but at the same time ...

Are you ****** serious? You're considering chastising your supervisor on providing you a LoR too quickly?

 

[ifnotnowwren]

I just asked my supervisor for a LOR and she turned it around super quick, like within a few hours. I have a very positive relation with her and vis versa, but the turnaround speed has been on my mind for a while now. Now, I may be a bit neurotic but could that be a bad thing? Like maybe she did a quick 5 sentence lor or maybe did she take someone else's she already wrote and just inserted my name instead? What should I do? I dont want to question her on what she wrote but at the same time ...

I think many people have templates that they use and then input your information. I wouldn't worry about it. Or she had some time and did it. Letters don't take a ton of time to write, giving people a long time span is courtesy so that they have time to think about it and find the time to do it. I would bet it took under an hour even.

 

[mimelim]

I just asked my supervisor for a LOR and she turned it around super quick, like within a few hours. I have a very positive relation with her and vis versa, but the turnaround speed has been on my mind for a while now. Now, I may be a bit neurotic but could that be a bad thing? Like maybe she did a quick 5 sentence lor or maybe did she take someone else's she already wrote and just inserted my name instead? What should I do? I dont want to question her on what she wrote but at the same time ...

The limiting factor for letter writing is typically when faculty get to it, not how long it actually takes to write. I wrote 2 letters for students (for an attending) in the last couple of months, I don't think that it took me more than an hour to write either of them. One of the other residents proof read it and then the attending read it, stamped it and sent it where it was supposed to go. It isn't exactly crazy that it should take more than 4 hours to do. Why do you think that you can only write 5 sentences in 4 hours? How does that make sense to you?

 

[thatwouldbeanarchy]

I would keep in mind that when someone asks for a letter and it takes the writer weeks to send it in, they're probably not spending all of that time agonizing over what to write. I'm willing to bet most writers spend 1 hr or less on a letter. So think of it this way, you asked for a letter and out of respect for you, your writer sat down and wrote it ASAP rather than making you wait around, hoping he/she hasn't forgotten about you.

Relax, OP. As long you have a good relationship with this person as you say, you have no reason to believe they wrote you a subpar letter.

 

[LizzyM]

I would keep in mind that when someone asks for a letter and it takes the writer weeks to send it in, they're probably not spending all of that time agonizing over what to write. I'm willing to bet most writers spend 1 hr or less on a letter. So think of it this way, you asked for a letter and out of respect for you, your writer sat down and wrote it ASAP rather than making you wait around, hoping he/she hasn't forgotten about you.

Relax, OP. As long you have a good relationship with this person as you say, you have no reason to believe they wrote you a subpar letter.

You only have to hope that if the writer has a template that they had the good sense to change the pronouns if the previous applicant was of a different gender. I've even seen letters where the gender of the applicant changes in mid letter! It doesn't hurt the applicant but I always feel embarrassed for the letter writer.

 

[thatwouldbeanarchy]

You only have to hope that if the writer has a template that they had the good sense to change the pronouns if the previous applicant was of a different gender. I've even seen letters where the gender of the applicant changes in mid letter! It doesn't hurt the applicant but I always feel embarrassed for the letter writer.

*CRINGE*

 

[Vandelay Industries]

Also, a lot of letter writers save old LoRs that they have written. That way they can copy/paste sentences and then edit. Hopefully this is relatable: I was asked by a faculty member who was applying for a teaching award to write a LoR for him. It probably took me an hour and a half. A few months later, I was contacted to write a LoR for another faculty member who was up for promotion, since I had worked extensively with her. That LoR went much faster since I could copy/paste/edit from my previous LoR.

 

[Vandelay Industries]

You only have to hope that if the writer has a template that they had the good sense to change the pronouns if the previous applicant was of a different gender. I've even seen letters where the gender of the applicant changes in mid letter! It doesn't hurt the applicant but I always feel embarrassed for the letter writer.

Agree. I was very afraid that I would make this mistake when copy/pasting from an old letter. I proofread extensively to ensure I didn't, but I could see how many wouldn't, or would overlook that.

 

[Lost in Translation]

Be thankful they actually got it back on time. I was waiting 3 months for one of my letters.

Another possibly I haven't seen proposed yet is that they had a letter prepped and were just waiting for you to ask.