Asking for LORs...

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docshepherd

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What's an appropriate amount of time to give a professor to write an LOR? My undergraduate school sends our letters for us, and wants to receive them all from professors by a certain date this summer.

Is three (3) weeks enough time to give a recommender to write a letter?

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docshepherd said:
What's an appropriate amount of time to give a professor to write an LOR? My undergraduate school sends our letters for us, and wants to receive them all from professors by a certain date this summer.

Is three (3) weeks enough time to give a recommender to write a letter?

hard to say...some professors only took 2 weeks to write mine...while others took 3 months! The earlier the better...i would suggest using a Letter service like interfolio if your school doesnt have a lor service
 
bump - can anybody else give me an idea?
 
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docshepherd said:
bump - can anybody else give me an idea?

Hi docsheperd,

I asked my LOR writers in May and gave them a packet of materials. CV, transcripts, Personal statement, forms, etc...

You typically dont need Letters until maybe early August (if you took April MCAT) or Late Sept if you took the August test. This gives them ample amounts of time to write a letter with out feeling rushed. Do give them about 4-5 weeks though. Dont give them a sense of urgency until you really need to light a fire under their butts!

Hope this helps.
 
docshepherd said:
What's an appropriate amount of time to give a professor to write an LOR? My undergraduate school sends our letters for us, and wants to receive them all from professors by a certain date this summer.

Is three (3) weeks enough time to give a recommender to write a letter?

I think 4-6 weeks is the standard. A lot of that is out of etiquette...it probably won't take them that long to write the letter, but professors are busy and you need to give them lead time. The last you thing want to do is rush your professor, because it will (1) annoy him or her and (2) make your letter not as good.

The absolute earliest you'll need the letters is July 1st, but that's if you submit AMCAS as soon as it begins accepting applications.
 
docshepherd said:
What's an appropriate amount of time to give a professor to write an LOR? My undergraduate school sends our letters for us, and wants to receive them all from professors by a certain date this summer.

Is three (3) weeks enough time to give a recommender to write a letter?

Give them over a month, at least. Agree with the others in this thread, and bear in mind that you may be one of many letters they are writing and they probably don't consider your career concerns as high on their list as their own. Thus don't be too surprised if you need to give them gentle reminders 3-4 weeks down the road, and push them along weekly after that. I had some that did the LORs within about two weeks and others that still hadn't started months later. Assume this will be the slowest moving part of your application, and budget time accordingly.
 
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