Letter of Recommendation Headache

[HappyHobPod]

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I have a letter of recommendation from a podiatrist and another from a professor from my undergrad. An additional professor of mine from undergrad agreed to write me a letter to satisfy the second required professor letter...three months ago. It has been very difficult to contact this individual, as apparently some of my emails with critical info. for the letter formation and submission process were received and others were not. So I arranged to go in person to hand deliver the professor what was needed and saw them set multiple reminders to form the letter on their physical and digital calendars. I was even instructed by them in this meeting to send a reminder at a certain date (which has come and gone) if the letter had yet to be written and uploaded to Interfolio. In reply to this reminder, I was told that when they return from out of town, that they would work on the letter. This professor returned 2 weeks ago and still I have received nothing...I'm wondering if I should just give up on expecting a Letter of Recommendation from this professor. To make matters even worse, the professor told me that he was glad I came to him early, because he wouldn't be able to write it after August 31st....4 days away.

Luckily, a year and a half ago I collected 3 letters from professors, 1 from my current boss, 1 from my college XC/Track Coach, and submitted them to my college's Health Professions Advising Committee. After interviewing, they formed a committee letter. I was very confident that I gathered good letters and was also very happy with how the committee interview went. However, I never applied or submitted this committee letter anywhere due to the fact that I knew I was not happy with the career path I was moving towards, and had long wrestled with the thought of pursuing Podiatry. Made the ultimate decision to switch soon after graduation. It was also too late for me to interview with this committee again prior to this application cycle for Pod. School. So I recently contacted the Health Professions Advising Committee director to see my options, and found that I could update my committee letter by explaining why I wished to choose a different career path and what I have done since I last interviewed with them. I won't have time to get new letters though that might help bolster a year and a half old committee letter. Should I just update this information and send a committee letter to the Pod. Schools or should I wait to see if my professor delivers on his promised letter before his clock runs out?

TL;DR After 3 months of heads up, my professor has 4 days left to write a LOR before he will not be able to. I could alternatively submit a committee letter to Pod. schools, but this committee letter is a year and a half old. Not sure what to do.

 

[bobtheweazel]

Hmm...I would go see the professor in person again. Surely they have office hours when you can just walk in and see them.

Also I think there are 1 or 2 schools that only require 2 letters of recommendation anyway. And also AZPod doesn't require LORs at all.

 

[CardsFan92]

Hmm...I would go see the professor in person again. Surely they have office hours when you can just walk in and see them.

Also I think there are 1 or 2 schools that only require 2 letters of recommendation anyway. And also AZPod doesn't require LORs at all.

Even though AZPod doesn't require letters, I'm just gonna go ahead and guess that it's probably a terrible idea to apply without any LORs

For OP-I would go with the committee letter. Cut your losses and move on. This is one of the busiest times of year for professors, and from what you wrote it looks to me like this prof has a whole bunch of other things to do besides write you a letter at the moment.

 

[bobtheweazel]

Even though AZPod doesn't require letters, I'm just gonna go ahead and guess that it's probably a terrible idea to apply without any LORs

Well, I sent AZPod my 3 LORs, I'm just saying if OP only has two good LORs that would be good enough for AZPod since their minimum is zero LORs.

 

[HappyHobPod]

Well, I sent AZPod my 3 LORs, I'm just saying if OP only has two good LORs that would be good enough for AZPod since their minimum is zero LORs.

Do you think it would be unnecessary to send the committee letter as well as the 2 LOR's that I already have? One of which I have to send anyways since it's from a Podiatrist.

 

[bobtheweazel]

Do you think it would be unnecessary to send the committee letter as well as the 2 LOR's that I already have? One of which I have to send anyways since it's from a Podiatrist.

The schools would probably see it as a bit redundant to send so much. You should call the schools that you plan to apply to though and ask them.

Also, I take it there's no way you can just get that last LOR from anybody else? I mean, I assume everybody writes favourable LORs and so the whole process is probably more of a formality than anything. If you have any other professors that might write you one then maybe go that route.

 

[HappyHobPod]

The schools would probably see it as a bit redundant to send so much. You should call the schools that you plan to apply to though and ask them.

Also, I take it there's no way you can just get that last LOR from anybody else? I mean, I assume everybody writes favourable LORs and so the whole process is probably more of a formality than anything. If you have any other professors that might write you one then maybe go that route.

Yes I could ask another professor as well, but it would just be the awkward "Oh hey I haven't seen you in 2 years and I can tell you kinda sorta but don't really remember me too well. Can I ask you for an LOR?" haha. The professors I asked I at least had fairly recently, had multiple lectures and labs with, and saw regularly outside of class by pure chance, and so was able to establish a good relationship with. Thank you for the advice, truly appreciate it. I will call the schools as you suggested and most likely just wait it out these last few days to see if it comes through and then if not, try and look more into updating the committee letter as thoroughly as possible. Stress man, stress!