Ah okay, I’ll clarify what I meant in that statement, I don’t mean it as a fact of it’s in their contract, but it’s well known in academia that professors write letters of rec. and they usually know how to go about writing them as well as deadlines. How else would they get more PhDs to further their fields, they need letters for their apps too.
When I was worried about asking my letter writers to write me a letter this is what I was told by some folks in the lab I work in who were doing their PhDs or have theirs. It’s somewhat expected by faculty to write them, however they’re still within their right to say no if they think they can’t write you one. But there’s no penalty for them if they don’t, however it’s usually well known by students who will write letters and who doesn’t. I knew which faculty to stay away from and who to potentially ask based on conversations with upperclassmen.
Some faculty at the beginning of courses also told us they wouldn’t write letters, some told us we needed to come to X-amount if office hours if we wanted one, and some said that we just need to shoot them an email. So it varies by profs and their expectations for students who need letters.
But this is based off my experience attending a large R1 university. It could be much different when comparing schools. But generally speaking faculty know that students will ask for letters and they are usually expected to write some. (It’s good to put on a CV as well if their letter got their student accepted)
