LOR When to get them question

[Averagemanboy]

So I'm a junior right now and decided not to apply this cycle so I'm taking a gap year. I want to get letter of recommendation from these professors I know right now but they would just sit in my interfolio account for about a year. Do they need to be current when I apply? Do I wait to ask in the couple months before I apply, even if they might forget a lot about me? Or do I ask now, get the letters, and then what?

I'm just not sure about the whole process.

Thanks

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[rilte4]

So I'm a junior right now and decided not to apply this cycle so I'm taking a gap year. I want to get letter of recommendation from these professors I know right now but they would just sit in my interfolio account for about a year. Do they need to be current when I apply? Do I wait to ask in the couple months before I apply, even if they might forget a lot about me? Or do I ask now, get the letters, and then what?

I'm just not sure about the whole process.

Thanks

Just one opinion, but I'd get the letters ASAP. Quality is what's most important, and a letter written a year after the fact probably won't be as glowing. I actually knew a few people who emailed professors/supervisors and asked them to update the dates on the letters when they were ready to apply to make the letters current. I don't have any experience with this, but it seemed to work just fine for the people who did it.

 

[691622]

or you could stay in contact with your professors throughout the year and build your relationships with them. that way when you ask for a letter next year they have a lot to write about you. just a thought

 

[Cookiess]

I would get them now while your relationship with your professors are still fresh and store your letters on Interfolio. There's always a chance of you losing touch with your professors over the next year or your professors move to a different school and cannot be reached. You could always ask them to update them in a year when you apply.