LoRs: What takes letter writers an entire month or longer?

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Gauss44

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Why does it take letter of evaluation/recommendation writers an entire month or better to write a letter? Shouldn't that take one hour? Please fill me in.
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The same thing that takes them two weeks past the deadline to peer review a manuscript. They, like people in other fields, are often procrastinators.

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Same reason why most college students don't start their assignments ahead of time: procrastination, ignoring adult responsibilities, too many good shows on Netflix, other things to do.

Professors are people too. They have other things going on. I know it sucks when they respond and are willing to write it, but then ghost out on you. Send some emails and wait. Have a backup


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Gauss44 said:
Why does it take letter of evaluation/recommendation writers an entire month or better to write a letter? Shouldn't that take one hour? Please fill me in.
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Life. Because unfortunately, as Allport would say, being a LOR writer is seldom an individual's cardinal identity (still remember my P/S oh yeaaa)
 
This is why you contact them in the spring and ask for the letter. This gives you time to sit down with them and let them get to know you better. If it's a great professor, they'll about your background, path, extracurricular activities, etc. Then let them know when you'd like the letter completed by. Interfolio (if that's still the primary system) can also be set to send them reminders.
 
I've been waiting for over a year on one. I understand because he's a professor, a professional, a dad, and a husband, among other things. As someone who has been in the work world for a long time, I know how much time work related responsibilities take. Add family and other things and into the mix and finding one hour seems next to impossible.


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Sometimes professors take longer time to write LOR because they want to read your PS and resume in detail to write a good LOR. Also, they have their priority which is their own work and research. In my university, professors don't have dedicated hours to write LOR for students and therefore have to take their personal downtime for it.

If the professor is too lazy to write you a LOR, they could of just said no.
 
DBC03 said:
I've been waiting for over a year on one. I understand because he's a professor, a professional, a dad, and a husband, among other things. As someone who has been in the work world for a long time, I know how much time work related responsibilities take. Add family and other things and into the mix and finding one hour seems next to impossible.


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That is ridiculous.

It's one thing to give them a month's notice to allow them to find time to sit down and (probably) write/process a few of them, since your request is probably not the only one, but a year is insane.
 
PreMedMissteps said:
That is ridiculous.

It's one thing to give them a month's notice to allow them to find time to sit down and (probably) write/process a few of them, since your request is probably not the only one, but a year is insane.
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Yeah, I just gave up. It was one of the few that really wasn't completely imperative. It would be great if he'd finish tomorrow, but I don't think it's likely...
 
Gauss44 said:
Why does it take letter of evaluation/recommendation writers an entire month or better to write a letter? Shouldn't that take one hour? Please fill me in.
Click to expand...

You're kidding yourself if you expect someone to write a solid LOR in one hour. A good letter that reflects on you and your abilities takes time to write. I also want to echo some of the other responses here: people have other responsibilities. Be patient. If they're taking time to write your letter, then that most likely means that they're giving it some serious thought. Although, I heard of one instance where one of my friends' professors waited until the day of submission to write it. Just in case, I would send a reminder email.
 
DBC03 said:
I've been waiting for over a year on one. I understand because he's a professor, a professional, a dad, and a husband, among other things. As someone who has been in the work world for a long time, I know how much time work related responsibilities take. Add family and other things and into the mix and finding one hour seems next to impossible.


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Click to expand...

Over a year?!? That's ridiculous.
But, to give some benefit of the doubt, why did you send a request for a letter over a year in advance? Unless there's some extenuating circumstance, then one month in advance should do. You could have almost an additional year's worth of experiences under your belt for your recommender to reference.
 
unicornshadow888 said:
Over a year?!? That's ridiculous.
But, to give some benefit of the doubt, why did you send a request for a letter over a year in advance? Unless there's some extenuating circumstance, then one month in advance should do. You could have almost an additional year's worth of experiences under your belt for your recommender to reference.
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I'm non-trad and this person taught me 15 years before. I was using a collection service and asked for the letter as soon as I knew I needed it as any extra time would just make it harder for him to remember me. We went back and forth for a while, but I think he has too much going on right now.


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DBC03 said:
I'm non-trad and this person taught me 15 years before. I was using a collection service and asked for the letter as soon as I knew I needed it as any extra time would just make it harder for him to remember me. We went back and forth for a while, but I think he has too much going on right now.


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Click to expand...

Yeah, I wouldn't have bothered with that person. TBH, it's a tough sell to get a LOR from someone who taught you 15 years prior even if you tried to re-connect.
 
unicornshadow888 said:
Yeah, I wouldn't have bothered with that person. TBH, it's a tough sell to get a LOR from someone who taught you 15 years prior even if you tried to re-connect.
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It was difficult! I actually had a very memorable class with him (a studio class so I was in class for 9 hours a week and in studio an additional 20). Awesome teacher, and he remembered me well, but I knew it was a crap shoot regardless because a letter from someone who knew me that long ago would've been nominal at best. I'm glad I recently found out we have a letter packet service at my UG and my thesis advisor came through with a letter after all these years, so his does double duty for non-science and PI. I don't know what I would do otherwise! Thankfully I had very happy letter writers from my post-bac. But the waiting. It really is the one thing completely out of your control. You have to be on top of it, but it comes down to hoping, praying, waiting, then reminding...


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gonnif said:
Funny, for some students, I usually need a couple of shots before I write a letter of recommendation
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Have you ever trashed someone who asked you to write a letter? I've only done it once in my career....and they deserved it. There was one former lab-mate who I really wanted to skewer, but in the end she never asked for the LOR.
 
Because we have better and more interesting things to do than to write letters. Also, most of us academics don't like writing anything at all, even our own publications.
 
unicornshadow888 said:
You're kidding yourself if you expect someone to write a solid LOR in one hour. A good letter that reflects on you and your abilities takes time to write. I also want to echo some of the other responses here: people have other responsibilities. Be patient. If they're taking time to write your letter, then that most likely means that they're giving it some serious thought. Although, I heard of one instance where one of my friends' professors waited until the day of submission to write it. Just in case, I would send a reminder email.
Click to expand...


JMHO, but I wonder if some science profs resent having to write LORs, particularly if they're at a university with 500+ premed/prevet/predental applicants asking. I've often wondered if some of them just set up some kind of boilerplate LOR with a few spots to insert some personal details and comments.

I look at schools like UCLA, UCB, and Florida that have 900+ applicants (plus their predental/prevet) and can imagine that many LORs go out vanilla.
 
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