Advice on reaching out to professors about LOR after a year

[deleted647690]

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Hi,
I am currently about a year and a few months out from my undergrad. Before I graduated, I spoke with some professors who agreed to write me a LOR as long as I sent them a personal statement for their reference. I never did this because I knew that I'd be taking a gap year, and I didn't want them to base the letter off a PS that would probably drastically change.

I realize now that this was a mistake. I should have just written a rough PS to get the letter, and then contacted them later to ask for revisions/updates if I made changes to my PS.

I am going to reach out to these professors, and I just wanted to see if someone would be willing to read the message I am going to send them to see if it sounds appropriate. I just feel awkward writing it because it's been over a year since I've spoken with these professors.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[lumya]

I’m also a non traditional student and what I did was reach out to the professors I wanted to write me a letter and include a short reminder of who I was (name, year & semester they had me, the course title, and the grade). I told them that I was applying to medical school and asked them if they still felt comfortable writing me a strong letter of recommendation. I sent my personal statement, a copy of my transcript with their course and my grade highlighted, and my personal statement.

I don’t think it’s an issue that you didn’t send your personal statement then. Many people ask professors they had earlier in their academic careers so 1.5 years isn’t that far out.

 

[jmetaller]

My only advice is just do it. I was graduated for a year and some of the professors I contacted I hadn't seen for two years. It was certainly challenging finding the right ones, but as long as they have a good reason to remember you they are typically glad to write it. I had an instance where I needed a "non science" LOR which was problematic because I only had one non-science class in recent years and not very strong relationships with the professor. I wrote him and he immediately responded happy to do it.

 

[deleted647690]

Great, thanks for the responses. I will go ahead and reach out to these professors soon.