LOR woes...

[Zuerst]

I asked one professor back in June 1st or if he would be willing to write a LOR for me and send it in by July 10, and he said yes, sweet. Send a little reminder/thank you email about two weeks later. No reponse from the professor, ok. Another 2 weeks or so past, send another reminder email explaining the importance of the letters. No response. At this point, I'm getting worried so I emailed the professor's assistant asking her to forward my email since I think my email might not be getting through because I never got the read reciept I requested. The assistant said that she got no response from the professor. So I called the professor on the phone and he said that the letter would be send out by the end of the week, what a relief. Well, that was 2 weeks ago. Sent anther reminder email couple days ago, no response.

Please help me understand this. I understand professors are very busy, but why agree to something multiple times and not do it? I plan on calling the professor this coming Monday, but I don't know how much good that will do judged from past experinces.

I'm probably going to contact a fourth professor, but given the 4 weeks courtesy period, my application wouldn't be complete until well into September.

Just need to get my frustration out there. Thoughts?

 

[Zymogen]

Does he have an office that you could go to and speak with him? That might be a good idea. If that doesn't work. Simply call him again? politely?

It's an unfortunate situation. If you call again and he misses another deadline then try to get a different one.

 

[narc]

I asked one professor back in June 1st or if he would be willing to write a LOR for me and send it in by July 10, and he said yes, sweet. Send a little reminder/thank you email about two weeks later. No reponse from the professor, ok. Another 2 weeks or so past, send another reminder email explaining the importance of the letters. No response. At this point, I'm getting worried so I emailed the professor's assistant asking her to forward my email since I think my email might not be getting through because I never got the read reciept I requested. The assistant said that she got no response from the professor. So I called the professor on the phone and he said that the letter would be send out by the end of the week, what a relief. Well, that was 2 weeks ago. Sent anther reminder email couple days ago, no response.

Please help me understand this. I understand professors are very busy, but why agree to something multiple times and not do it? I plan on calling the professor this coming Monday, but I don't know how much good that will do judged from past experinces.

I'm probably going to contact a fourth professor, but given the 4 weeks courtesy period, my application wouldn't be complete until well into September.

Just need to get my frustration out there. Thoughts?

Had the same problem. Never got the letter. Thankfully i asked more people when he failed to respond to emails and phone calls. You just gotta find another person... its sucks but thats life. Get used to it.

 

[Zuerst]

Does he have an office that you could go to and speak with him? That might be a good idea. If that doesn't work. Simply call him again? politely?

It's an unfortunate situation. If you call again and he misses another deadline then try to get a different one.

He does have an office but is not teaching a summer class so does not have set office hours and he can not give me some definite times that he will be in his office. I work full time this summer and have taken time out of my lunch break a couples times to try to catch him on campus, no luck.

 

[mvenus929]

I had this problem for a scholarship LOR I had... I talked to my professor about two weeks before the end of the semester, and asked him to send it in over break. When it was a good week into January, I e-mailed him, saying that I hadn't recieved the letter (in a sealed envelope), and asked if he had sent it yet. No response. I got back to school after break and checked my campus mailbox... nothing, so I sent him another e-mail. He responded to that one, saying that he didn't think he was qualified to write me a letter since I had only had him for one semester. That was about two weeks before the deadline, so I had to rush to my gen chem professor and ask her nicely to write me a letter. She actually came through for me.

Basically, if you have to go to another professor, explain to them the situation, and see if they can get it to you soon, without seeming like you're rushing them. If they're busy for whatever reason, just thank them and accept the delayed grace period, and hope for the best.