Asking for Letter of recommendation

[Oh_Gee]

Hi guys,

I graduated June 2014 and now it's February and I decided (probably way too late) to ask for LoRs. I emailed 2 science and 1 non science professors to ask them if I could meet up with them to discuss it on campus. The non science prof got back to me in less than a day and agreed to a meeting (great guy, took him for 5 classes). However, my 2 science professors haven't gotten back to me yet. It's been a week so far. If they were on vacation or sabbatical, I'm sure I would get an automatic reply from the school email system telling me that they are away.

Possibilities
1. They saw it and are ignoring me
2. It went in their junk mail (unlikely I think)
3. They accidentally deleted it (I do this all the time with my work email because I select all new emails and uncheck the important ones and hit delete)
4. They are on vacation and didn't set the automatic reply (unlikely, these guys are professionals and one of them is a PI)


So what do you guys think? Should I call them or email them again? One has their lab phone listed on the website and the other has a phone number on his website (he doesn't have his own lab so I'm not sure if it's his personal phone or not). if they are ignoring my email, I feel like they'll get mad if I call them.

I'm really set on asking these 2 professors because I went to their office hours a lot. I genuinely enjoyed talking to them because they were hilarious but I made the mistake of not keeping in touch with them after I finished their class. I didn't talk to any other science professors because of how cold they were. I took Prof A's class 2 years ago and Prof B's class last year.

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[Gauss44]

I would try calling and walking by their offices to see if you can happen upon them. If you want LoRs for June 2015, IMO, you are late. If it were me, I would emphasis the value I think that particular professor could add to my LoR and say that given the time frame, next year is fine, but I would be a great favor to me and extremely helpful if it were at all possible to submit that LoR THIS YEAR by June or July 2015. That way, hopefully, they won't be mad at you and reflect that in their letter, which would be one of my fears. Others may or may not have better ideas and insight.

 

[Oh_Gee]

I would try calling and walking by their offices to see if you can happen upon them. If you want LoRs for June 2015, IMO, you are late. If it were me, I would emphasis the value I think that particular professor could add to my LoR and say that given the time frame, next year is fine, but I would be a great favor to me and extremely helpful if it were at all possible to submit that LoR THIS YEAR by June or July 2015. That way, hopefully, they won't be mad at you and reflect that in their letter, which would be one of my fears. Others may or may not have better ideas and insight.

dang, you really think it's too late for this upcoming cycle?

 

[Psai]

No dude lol you have so much time. My professors didn't do their letters until the day it was due. It doesn't take that much time to write a letter, I'm sure they have some format that they use since you are definitely not the first one to ask for a letter

Go visit that professor that said yes. Then go see if you can get into office hours with the other two guys. Bring your cv, see if they remember you and go from there. Try emailing other professors that you had a good relationship with as well

 

[Relax!]

dang, you really think it's too late for this upcoming cycle?

I don't think you are too late. Giving letter writers ~5 months to write a letter is enough time, from my experience. If possible, try to e-mail other science professors who liked you and in whose classes you did well...just in case one or both of these profs are busy or unable to write you a letter. E-mail these two profs once more and wait for a couple more days. If they still don't get back to you, then you could call them and try visiting them. If you end up calling them or meeting them in person, apologize in advance for the repeated attempts to communicate with them and tell them that their recommendation would mean a lot to you.

 

[kraskadva]

I don't see any reason at all why it would be too late. This is a normal thing that happens all the time. Heck, I got a LOR from a professor 6 years after I graduated. Less than a year is not unusual at all.

OP- It's only been a week, and as you said above, it's easy to miss an email, especially when the semester is getting started, first exams are coming up, etc, etc and their inboxes are full.
If you're on campus to meet the non-science prof anyway, you should definitely swing by their offices and speak to them if they are there. Leave them a note with the dept. secretary if they're not.

And I would highly recommend taking a packet with you to hand over if they enthusiastically say yes. Include transcript, CV, personal statement if you have it written, etc., that will help jog their memories and give them more things they can include about you in their letters. The AAMC has a good brochure for letter writers as well that would be useful to include.

 

[Oh_Gee]

lol I'm getting either ignored or shot down left & right
can't believe this is what is gonna stop me from appying

 

[kraskadva]

lol I'm getting either ignored or shot down left & right
can't believe this is what is gonna stop me from appying

What happened?

 

[Oh_Gee]

What happened?

my 2 top choices for science teachers are still ignoring me. i emailed them again and also left a message at their work phones. anything more at this point for them and I feel like I risk angering them.

I email another teacher who I never really talked to. He just said "Sorry. Best wishes."

Another teacher said his policy is that he only writes letters for students who have taken his 2 of his classes.

I guess I just have to keep trying but all my other options are teachers I've never spoken to because they seem so cold

Another option would be to just take a random class at UCSD? It's expensive but idc at this point
but it just seems shady to have the reason to be I need a LoR and another A. The class I would take (intro to biofuels, upper div class) is something I wanted to take when I was undergrad but UCSD forced me to graduate before I could take it because I had too many units

 

[kraskadva]

my 2 top choices for science teachers are still ignoring me. i emailed them again and also left a message at their work phones. anything more at this point for them and I feel like I risk angering them.

I email another teacher who I never really talked to. He just said "Sorry. Best wishes."

Another teacher said his policy is that he only writes letters for students who have taken his 2 of his classes.

I guess I just have to keep trying but all my other options are teachers I've never spoken to because they seem so cold

Another option would be to just take a random class at UCSD? It's expensive but idc at this point
but it just seems shady to have the reason to be I need a LoR and another A. The class I would take (intro to biofuels, upper div class) is something I wanted to take when I was undergrad but UCSD forced me to graduate before I could take it because I had too many units

Well, I'd leave the "taking another class" option for a last resort...and asking profs you've never spoken to isn't a great idea, as they wouldn't be able to write a good letter for you even if they agreed.

The top 2 choices - are they generally super busy and/or bad at responding to emails? Does this seem out of character? If they would normally get back to you right away, then maybe there's some reason to be worried. If this is normal though...
Is spring break coming up at UCSD? Could you stop by and try to catch them in person while they won't be busy with students/ midterms/etc. ? I think face to face is going to be your best shot at discerning whether they really have been ignoring you or if they just forgot, but still would write you a good letter.

Sorry - I'm sure this whole thing is stressful right now. You still have time to figure something out though so don't panic over it yet.

 

[Oh_Gee]

Well, I'd leave the "taking another class" option for a last resort...and asking profs you've never spoken to isn't a great idea, as they wouldn't be able to write a good letter for you even if they agreed.

The top 2 choices - are they generally super busy and/or bad at responding to emails? Does this seem out of character? If they would normally get back to you right away, then maybe there's some reason to be worried. If this is normal though...
Is spring break coming up at UCSD? Could you stop by and try to catch them in person while they won't be busy with students/ midterms/etc. ? I think face to face is going to be your best shot at discerning whether they really have been ignoring you or if they just forgot, but still would write you a good letter.

Sorry - I'm sure this whole thing is stressful right now. You still have time to figure something out though so don't panic over it yet.

One of the top choices is usually busy b/c he runs a pretty big lab but he seemed like a really nice guy in office hours and lectures. I left him a message with one of his postdocs who picked up the lab phone last Friday but no response whatsoever

The other top choice does not have a lab but lectures at city colleges and UCSD so he does not have an office I can show up to...

 

[kraskadva]

Well they both sound pretty busy to me.
A message left with a postdoc could totally have gotten lost in transmission. I would definitely stop by. If he says no to your face, then that's that. But I wouldn't assume that he's avoiding you until you have proof.

As for the one with no office, IDK what to tell you. Maybe try one more email during spring break...

 

[mehc012]

To put this in perspective, OP, a year after I graduated, I showed up with no appointment at 2 of my prof's doors and told them I had changed entirely and was going to apply to med school eventually. I had a chat with each of them and left with confirmation that they'd write me a letter when the time came.
My third professor, I asked only a few weeks after taking his class. His response was that he'd already written one, and I just had to let him know when I needed it.
I then did another medically-related program 6mo before the app opened and requested letters from all three of them, just to make sure they remembered me/would be pretty prepared when the real LOR writing time came.

All sounds good, right?

Well, a few weeks ago I finally emailed each of them (have to email, live thousands of miles from them) that the time was upon us, please tell me you're still down to write me letters! Annnd....nothing. No joke, only one of them got back to me within a week (and that was with a reminder message sent). I was having a gorram heart attack. The others required over a week and multiple nudges via email. Keep in mind, these are professors who know me well, already agreed in person to write, and already wrote a version, and they still take that long and are incommunicado for a while. Why?

To put it frankly, email sucks for this task. I can tell you exactly what each of my profs did (and likely what yours have done as well): they opened your email, thought "ohh yeah, I should take care of this" but it seemed like more of a PITA than their other inbox tasks that day, so they set it aside, dealt with the rest of their messages, and then ran off to go eat breakfast, completely forgetting the 'come back to that later' step. The next time you emailed, it was a even bigger task because, see, now they have to explain why they blew you off instead of giving any answer, rinse and repeat.

I'm not saying your profs will write for you, or that they'll be good. I'm just saying that you don't really know until you ask them over not-email (or get at least some response from them).

 

[Oh_Gee]

To put this in perspective, OP, a year after I graduated, I showed up with no appointment at 2 of my prof's doors and told them I had changed entirely and was going to apply to med school eventually. I had a chat with each of them and left with confirmation that they'd write me a letter when the time came.
My third professor, I asked only a few weeks after taking his class. His response was that he'd already written one, and I just had to let him know when I needed it.
I then did another medically-related program 6mo before the app opened and requested letters from all three of them, just to make sure they remembered me/would be pretty prepared when the real LOR writing time came.

All sounds good, right?

Well, a few weeks ago I finally emailed each of them (have to email, live thousands of miles from them) that the time was upon us, please tell me you're still down to write me letters! Annnd....nothing. No joke, only one of them got back to me within a week (and that was with a reminder message sent). I was having a gorram heart attack. The others required over a week and multiple nudges via email. Keep in mind, these are professors who know me well, already agreed in person to write, and already wrote a version, and they still take that long and are incommunicado for a while. Why?

To put it frankly, email sucks for this task. I can tell you exactly what each of my profs did (and likely what yours have done as well): they opened your email, thought "ohh yeah, I should take care of this" but it seemed like more of a PITA than their other inbox tasks that day, so they set it aside, dealt with the rest of their messages, and then ran off to go eat breakfast, completely forgetting the 'come back to that later' step. The next time you emailed, it was a even bigger task because, see, now they have to explain why they blew you off instead of giving any answer, rinse and repeat.

I'm not saying your profs will write for you, or that they'll be good. I'm just saying that you don't really know until you ask them over not-email (or get at least some response from them).

lol reading this made me feel better. next week is UCSD spring break. I think I'll pop in to the office of the prof who is the busy PI. Also, I found a UCSD website that lists prof's contact info as well as their assistant's email so I think I'll email their assistant too.

Also, is "gorram" from Firefly? that sounds familiar. made me nostalgic

Anyways, thanks for the story and may be the pre med god(s) be with you this cycle sir or ma'am

 

[crossfit4lyfe]

dang, you really think it's too late for this upcoming cycle?

Not late at all, that person mislead you lol

 

[mehc012]

lol reading this made me feel better. next week is UCSD spring break. I think I'll pop in to the office of the prof who is the busy PI. Also, I found a UCSD website that lists prof's contact info as well as their assistant's email so I think I'll email their assistant too.

Also, is "gorram" from Firefly? that sounds familiar. made me nostalgic

Anyways, thanks for the story and may be the pre med god(s) be with you this cycle sir or ma'am

Haha, yeah, that is from Firefly as well as my avatar.

To be honest, I didn't intend to put that in there, I've just gotten into the nastily nerdy habit of subbing in 'gorram' and 'frakking' (an extra 5pts for Gryffindor if you know that one off the top of your head too) when I'm online because of the censors! I figure, if it's considered OK to put on TV, it should be enough to avoid a ToS violation

 

[Oh_Gee]

Haha, yeah, that is from Firefly as well as my avatar.

To be honest, I didn't intend to put that in there, I've just gotten into the nastily nerdy habit of subbing in 'gorram' and 'frakking' (an extra 5pts for Gryffindor if you know that one off the top of your head too) when I'm online because of the censors! I figure, if it's considered OK to put on TV, it should be enough to avoid a ToS violation

BSG

i still have dreams of waking up on Galactica.
SyFy peeps unite

 

[Oh_Gee]

Update: finally got in contact with both of my top choices. The lecturer picked up his phone and told me we can discuss it after his classes are done in June. I hope he remembers agreeing!

Showed up to the PI's office in person and he also agreed. He told me to start a email campaign to him a few weeks before the deadline lol

I won't rest easy until I see their letters sitting in my interfolio account...

 

[lifetothefullest]

Isn't June a bit late to only be beginning to discuss the LOR? You want to submit your AMCAS in June...

 

[Oh_Gee]

Isn't June a bit late to only be beginning to discuss the LOR? You want to submit your AMCAS in June...

Assuming he's gonna write me one, I would think he would put more time and effort into it once he turns his grades in. But yeah i guess i should ask the PI to have his in end of May. Time to get cracking on my PS.
Also, I'm a noob to this. Do MD schools look at your LoR's before deciding if you get a II?

 

[allantois]

Assuming he's gonna write me one, I would think he would put more time and effort into it once he turns his grades in. But yeah i guess i should ask the PI to have his in end of May. Time to get cracking on my PS.
Also, I'm a noob to this. Do MD schools look at your LoR's before deciding if you get a II?

Without LORs, your application is incomplete, and hence you won't get II