LOR writer (PI) not responding

[byaaaaaaah23]

My freshman year PI, who is at a different school, agreed to write me an LOR for MD/PhD back in early March when I asked her. Since then, I have emailed twice to check on it, but she hasn't responded since March 2. I sent her all the info she needs, and she was very receptive to me when I first asked, but I'm starting to get really worried since she is one of my PIs and I'll need her letter to apply this summer. I last emailed her on April 17.

Any ideas on what to do now? Should I call her office? I don't want to be aggressive or annoying, and I can't go see her since I am ~4 hours away.

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[delirium81]

I'm sure your e-mails are just getting lost in the mix. Most PIs get several hundred e-mails a day. She most likely opened your e-mails, figured she'd get to it later, and then forgot about it. I'd e-mail her one more time. If you don't hear back from her after a week, then I would call her office and ask her about when she can get to your LOR.

 

[SBR249]

It's the end of April, there's plenty of time.

Not having LORs will not delay your AMCAS or anything like that, only the completion of your file at the medical school. That means ideally your letters just need to arrive at the same time or earlier than your secondary.

How are you sending your letters? Straight to AMCAS from the writer or first to a compiler like your school's premed office which then sends them to AMCAS as a packet or uploads them all to VirtualEvals? If the latter, then check with your school to see what deadlines they have. Mine had June 1 as the deadline. Then just send the writer an email and say I checked with my school and they require the letters to be in by X (where X is the actual deadline minus 2 weeks). Once you send that email, you wait until a week before the deadline to send a courtesy reminder. Otherwise just sit tight and don't annoy them.

If the writer is sending straight to AMCAS then tell them that you are planning on submitting the AMCAS in early June and you would like to have the letters on file by then.

 

[byaaaaaaah23]

Thanks guys.

I'm sending it to my premed office, which then writes the committee letter and forwards the whole package after my primary is processed (although I know they do have a lag time the longer you wait to get them in). I guess I'll give it until the end of April (like another week) then send her an email. I don't think the committee has a deadline but I have told her in my past emails that they should be in late May by the latest.