Is it rude/look bad to ask your recommendors if they submitted the letters already?

[asigna]

Hey everyone quick question. How does it look if I ask my recommendors if they already submitted my letters? I don't want to seem like I think that they forgot about it but I also want to make sure they will have them in by the deadline next week.

What should I do?

Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[dedicated1989]

send a polite reminder of the date and thank them again for their support

 

[music2doc]

send a polite reminder of the date and thank them again for their support

This is an acceptable approach...

Hey everyone quick question. How does it look if I ask my recommendors if they already submitted my letters? I don't want to seem like I think that they forgot about it but I also want to make sure they will have them in by the deadline next week.

What should I do?

Thanks!

...But my suggestion would actually be to go ahead and thank them for writing the letter regardless of whether or not they have written/sent it. Include a small thank you gift for all of them -- again regardless of whether or not a letter was written/sent (e.g., bake a batch of cookies and make baggies of a half-dozen each for your LOR writers). They will all really appreciate it and those who've forgotten to write your letter will get on it right away (and feel even better about you while writing the letter, which can only help). I would, of course, generally avoid sending a gift to professors with whom you currently have a class unless your relationship with them is already of a relatively casual and congenial nature such that a gift would not been seen as over the top or overstepping boundaries.

 

[deleted480308]

if you use interfolio...you will know if they submitted. I had a practice of sending a brief, "thank you for doing this, is there any more information that I should get to you" reminder every other week.

it's ok to remind them, they know they didn't do the letter and that you need it......it's not ok to be rude or demanding, they totally have their own lives and don't owe us a letter

 

[CarlosDanger]

Yeah, recommenders may need many, many reminders. I politely asked mine to submit by a certain date which I knew was earlier than I needed. A couple of them needed more than 5 reminder emails after they were already late. Just be very appreciative and polite when you remind. Some professors are notoriously bad about returning emails, and they do things at the very last minute just like the rest of us.

 

[QuantumJ]

A well worded reminder is fine. I had to do so a month after the applications opened because of my letter writers did everything submit. It's no big deal.