How do I handle non-responsive letter writers?

[appleenjoyer]

Hello,

I have contacted two of my letter writers two days ago, and none have responded yet. I am starting to get nervous, as I was hoping for my letters to be in by June 5th (8 weeks from today). Should I follow up now, or wait? I want everything to be in as early as possible, but I also don't want to annoy my writers. What should I do?

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[wysdoc]

Hello,

I have contacted two of my letter writers two days ago, and none have responded yet. I am starting to get nervous, as I was hoping for my letters to be in by June 5th (8 weeks from today). Should I follow up now, or wait? I want everything to be in as early as possible, but I also don't want to annoy my writers. What should I do?

Dont annoy them, your AMCAS app can be verified without the letters having been uploaded. You just need your app & your transcripts.
Schools don’t usually read the letters early in their review of your app

 

[appleenjoyer]

Dont annoy them, your AMCAS app can be verified without the letters having been uploaded. You just need your app & your transcripts.
Schools don’t usually read the letters early in their review of your app

I do need some time for my letters to be collated into a packet by my advisors, however, and I would like my complete application to be in to each school as soon as possible.

 

[wysdoc]

I do need some time for my letters to be collated into a packet by my advisors, however, and I would like my complete application to be in to each school as soon as possible.

An annoyed letter writer may not write you the greatest letter, or may say they can’t do it that fast
Tread lightly
Two days ago?

 

[appleenjoyer]

An annoyed letter writer may not write you the greatest letter, or may say they can’t do it that fast
Tread lightly
Two days ago?

Fair point. I am just getting a little bit nervous because both writers have historically been somewhat non-responsive and prone to doing things at the last moment. What would a good follow-up length be? A week or so?

 

[wysdoc]

Fair point. I am just getting a little bit nervous because both writers have historically been somewhat non-responsive and prone to doing things at the last moment. What would a good follow-up length be? A week or so?

Two weeks at least
Instead of asking if they wrote it yet, make your follow-up letter very thankful, and tell them “by the way, the committee that compiles our letters likes to collect them by X date “ and give the email address of the health professions office

 

[LizzyM]

Give me a deadline and I will meet that deadline but it is not bloody likely that I will do it 6 weeks in advance of the deadline. Furthermore, if I've not known you that long (< 1 year), the longer I delay, the more time I'll have known you. All these letters have an opening paragraph that says how long the writer has known you so the longer the better -- 8 weeks more can make a big difference.

If this is a letter to be uploaded into AMCAS, it isn't going to be seen by the med schools until the last week of June at the earliest and more likely the end of August/ early September. If this is for a committee that is going to write committee letters over the summer break and they've given you a deadline, pass that deadline to your writers. In many cases, the writers know the advisory committee deadline and can become annoyed if you are pressuring them to be quick when they know the usual deadline for these letters.

 

[appleenjoyer]

Give me a deadline and I will meet that deadline but it is not bloody likely that I will do it 6 weeks in advance of the deadline. Furthermore, if I've not known you that long (< 1 year), the longer I delay, the more time I'll have known you. All these letters have an opening paragraph that says how long the writer has known you so the longer the better -- 8 weeks more can make a big difference.

If this is a letter to be uploaded into AMCAS, it isn't going to be seen by the med schools until the last week of June at the earliest and more likely the end of August/ early September. If this is for a committee that is going to write committee letters over the summer break and they've given you a deadline, pass that deadline to your writers. In many cases, the writers know the advisory committee deadline and can become annoyed if you are pressuring them to be quick when they know the usual deadline for these letters.

I do understand this. Perhaps I didn't explain my situation clearly, so I aplologize. I am worried because my letter writers have not indicated whether or not they would be willing to provide an actual letter yet, not because they haven't physically submitted anything on my behalf. I have known both for at least two years, and one is my previous PI, whose letter will be required for my application (I am applying MD-PhD). I am unsure how long to wait before following up because I don't want to aggravate either, but I would at least like confirmation whether or not they are willing to help.

 

[candbgirl]

Fair point. I am just getting a little bit nervous because both writers have historically been somewhat non-responsive and prone to doing things at the last moment. What would a good follow-up length be? A week or so?

Have they agreed to write you letters? There is no reason for your letters to be in by June 5. What is the date your school needs the letters for the packet? Do you have backup letter writers? Why did you choose these two people with their histories of being sort of slow in writing?
All of your transmittal stuff from AMCAS won’t be sent until the end of June at the earliest, unless the process has been changed this year (I haven’t paid attention to the dates etc for the new cycle).

 

[appleenjoyer]

Have they agreed to write you letters? There is no reason for your letters to be in by June 5. What is the date your school needs the letters for the packet? Do you have backup letter writers? Why did you choose these two people with their histories of being sort of slow in writing?
All of your transmittal stuff from AMCAS won’t be sent until the end of June at the earliest, unless the process has been changed this year (I haven’t paid attention to the dates etc for the new cycle).

No, they haven't agreed to anything yet - the emails I am referring to here were the initial inquiries as to whether they would write me a LOR. My school only has a hard deadline of Sept. 1 for the packet letters, but I would like everything in by the beginning of June such that my complete application can be received as early as possible by the schools that I have applied to. If the earliest secondaries are transmitted in early July or so, I figure that it would be best to have all my letters in a month early so that the committee has time to review them and prepare my packet. I do have backup professors that I can consider asking in place of one of my writers, but the other writer is my previous PI, and I will absolutely require a letter from him, as my research under him will be listed as one of my most significant experiences.

 

[Goro]

I do understand this. Perhaps I didn't explain my situation clearly, so I aplologize. I am worried because my letter writers have not indicated whether or not they would be willing to provide an actual letter yet, not because they haven't physically submitted anything on my behalf. I have known both for at least two years, and one is my previous PI, whose letter will be required for my application (I am applying MD-PhD). I am unsure how long to wait before following up because I don't want to aggravate either, but I would at least like confirmation whether or not they are willing to help.

Patience is a virtue, and you're going to need to be patient.

Better yet, ask them in person, "Dr Jones, do you know me well enough to write me a good LOR for my med school app?"

 

[candbgirl]

Do what @Goro said. Are you still on campus? Or do you have access to campus? Go visit these people and ask in person. Talk with them and you might get a feeling if they will write a strong letter of recommendation. Just a FYI, Sept 1 isn’t late for committee letters or letter packets. You see to be doing e erything you can to get things submitted in a timely manner.
Good luck.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Two words: office hours.

 

[LizzyM]

You are setting an unrealistic deadline for the letters. Writers will know this. Many may use the summer months, when their workload is lighter, to pump out letters.

I do agree that if you are physically on campus, you should attend office hours and ask in person.

 

[appleenjoyer]

You are setting an unrealistic deadline for the letters. Writers will know this. Many may use the summer months, when their workload is lighter, to pump out letters.

I do agree that if you are physically on campus, you should attend office hours and ask in person.

Thank you for letting me know. Fortunately, none of the emails that I sent out mentioned anything about a timeline - they were just initial requests about whether the writers would be willing to help. Because I still have the option of proposing a realistic deadline, when you suggest I ask for, assuming that I would like my complete package to be received as soon as possible? Sorry, but the entire timeline is still not fully clear to me. I know several people that have began submitting complete secondaries as soon as mid-July, and so I figured it would be best to have everything ready, including my letter packet, by the end of June.

 

[Goro]

Thank you for letting me know. Fortunately, none of the emails that I sent out mentioned anything about a timeline - they were just initial requests about whether the writers would be willing to help. Because I still have the option of proposing a realistic deadline, when you suggest I ask for, assuming that I would like my complete package to be received as soon as possible? Sorry, but the entire timeline is still not fully clear to me. I know several people that have began submitting complete secondaries as soon as mid-July, and so I figured it would be best to have everything ready, including my letter packet, by the end of June.

FYI, applications are not processed in temporal order of receipt.

 

[GoSpursGo]

As others have noted, these are not letter writers until they agree to write you a letter.

Attend office hours and ask for a letter in person.

 

[appleenjoyer]

As others have noted, these are not letter writers until they agree to write you a letter.

Attend office hours and ask for a letter in person.

Fair enough. I’ve moved several states away by now, so was hoping to avoid running back home to ask. But it seems to be the best option at this point.

 

[appleenjoyer]

FYI, applications are not processed in temporal order of receipt.

Thanks for letting me know; I didn’t realize this. How are they processed, then, if you don’t mind me asking?

 

[GoSpursGo]

Fair enough. I’ve moved several states away by now, so was hoping to avoid running back home to ask. But it seems to be the best option at this point.

Ah, this was not clear.

I don’t think you need to fly across state lines, but 2 days is nothing. I think you can ping them after a week. Can also try calling their office phone during office hours

 

[LizzyM]

Many schools, very reputable ones with numerous pre-meds needing letter packets, don't send those packets until August 31. I've always said that if everything, including letters, is in hand by Labor Day (first Monday in September) you are on time. This goes double for MD/PhD which tends to run on a slightly slower schedule than MD-only.

Do you know that at least 25% of all applicants are dumped on admissions offices in the first data dump. Many schools could fill their class several times over with the applicants from day 1 but they don't. Excellent applicants continue to flow in through the summer and every one of them gets a fair shake. Schools can sort by whatever variables they wish and "skim the cream". They may even make interview offers before the letters arrive with a note to the interviewers and post-interview application reviewers to "check the letters when they arrive".

Most schools interview during college football season meaning that it starts slow in August, ramps up in September through November, and then slows down but does not stop through December and January. Offers start to go out in mid-October (shortly after hockey season starts) and pretty much follows that season with the last of the offers trickling out for waitlisted applicants in May and even June.

 

[Goro]

Thanks for letting me know; I didn’t realize this. How are they processed, then, if you don’t mind me asking?

Admissions will start off by looking at veterans, URMs, legacies, outstanding stories, people with significant achievements, like Olympic athletes, people who closely fit the school's mission, Etc

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Processing applications is tough.

While You Are Waiting: Processing Health Professions Applications - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

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I think our first step that can be done chronologically is skimming off the email addresses from your primary application to set up the invitation to join our applicant portal (and pay us more money). We also shouldn't be reviewing applications until we have verified GPA's.