Letter of Recommendation Reminders/Deadline

[TheCruelOne]

Hey guys! I'm a little bit worried about the situation that I'm in, and I'm hoping that some of you could help me. I'm taking part in a post-baccalaureate program at the moment, and I'm looking to get a committee letter through this program. For the committee letters, the directors of this program require that at least three of your medical school recommendation letters be submitted to Interfolio by May 15th so that they can use these to help write your letter.

I asked one non-science professor and one science professor from undergrad as well as one volunteer coordinator to write letters for me in February via email. Thankfully, they all agreed. Later on, on March 23rd I emailed them all again and provided them with a link to a Dropbox folder I made including my resume, personal information that I felt would help them construct letters, transcript, and other necessary information for the letter-writing process. I also officially requested them as letter writers via Interfolio that same day. My one non-science professor completed her recommendation letter by April 4th, however my volunteer coordinator and my science professor have yet to complete theirs. I gave them all a deadline of May 10th to complete their letters, which I now realize is kind of a dumb move on my part. :/

I emailed my two final letter writers on April 23rd to gently remind them of the May 10th deadline. I think I was pretty nice in the email. I made sure to let them know they could email me at any time in if they had questions about writing my letter or had trouble with Interfolio. Also, because I'm a little paranoid, I asked them if they could send me a quick reply back letting me know how the letter-writing process is going. To date, neither of them have emailed me back. I kind of expect that neither of them have even touched my letter yet, but I was really hoping for them to at least send a reply to me so that I could have some kind of reassurance that my letters will be done by May 10th. I'm contemplating visiting them both in person this week to check in on them and see how my letters are going, but I'm not sure if I should just wait a little while longer. Would it be too pushy of me to visit them this week? What would you guys do in my situation? I'm kind of scared right now. 🙁

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[TheCruelOne]

I would think a professional nudge via visit is in order and let them know it is required by the date May 15th date for the premed committee; they may have the notion that its a medical school letter not due until much later, which is the common time line

Thanks for your reply! Okay yeah, I think I'll make sure to visit them and mention the due date is for a committee letter. Do you think I should pay a visit this week or closer to the deadline I gave them (like possibly May 5th?) I'm scared about bothering them so much when they're doing this favor for me. I emailed both of them last Thursday, but I'm actually on campus at my undergrad school today, so I could potentially visit my science professor's office to see if he's in. Do you think a visit today would be too soon?

 

[TheCruelOne]

Also, do you think the fact that neither of them sent me a reply to that April 23 email means anything? I think I may be reading too much into it. I'm sure they're both busy people, but a small part of me is kind of scared they're intentionally disregarding my email.

 

[TheCruelOne]

Alright, awesome. That's what I was thinking, too. I'll try paying my science professor a visit today, and hopefully he'll be in. Thank you so much for the advice!

 

[TheCruelOne]

I've spoken to both of my letter writers in person at this point. My volunteer coordinator letter writer said she'd be writing and submitting her letter the afternoon I spoke to her (I figured that most likely wouldn't happen), but she hasn't yet submitted it. I've also spoke to my undergrad science professor who, even before I said a word to him, jokingly said "You know I'll write your letter, right??" He mentioned something about how he always does things at the last second.

I'm sure these guys will complete their letters before the deadline, but I'm wondering if Interfolio sends out emails to remind letter writers of upcoming deadlines. Does anyone know anything about this?