LORs - writers are not replying!!!

[sunnex3]

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i have two LOR writers from school (gen chem II professor, freshman/sophomore year advisor) who i have recently contacted after graduation to update them on my information/make sure that they are ready for me to send them the information on how to submit their LOR on VMCAS. however, it's now been almost 2 weeks since i emailed both of them and no one has replied! i'm starting to freak out because both of them agreed to write my LOR (and one of them has it written already, he's just been updating it as we go).

what do i do? trying not to freak out as it is only june and the application isn't due for a while still.

 

[nyanko]

what do i do?

You answered your own question.

not...freak out as it is only june and the application isn't due for a while still.

These people have other responsibilities and other things on their plates than your letters of recommendation that are due in October. You'd do well to ease off a little, particularly if both of them already agreed to write the letters and you know that one of them has already started.

Relax.....

 

[sunnex3]

thanks...i tend to overworry about a lot of things.

 

[Minnerbelle]

thanks...i tend to overworry about a lot of things.

lol, i'd work on keeping that in check. it's only june! people generally start the real freak out in a couple of months. you may very well be waiting until the last couple of weeks before all of your LORs are submitted, and your freaking out is not going to make it any better.

then you're going to freak out after it's submitted wondering if the vet schools got everything

then you're going to freak out and wonder if you should contact admissions every other day to clarify something

then you're going to freak out when people start hearing about interviews

then you're going to freak out when people start getting accepted/rejected

then you're going to freak out once you're accepted, and the freak outs might believe it or not get worse once you're in vet school!

it's just bad for your heart, and it's not attractive (i know from personal experience)!

 

[Marsala]

No offense, sunnex3, but your high-strung posts are stressing me out (and I'm not even witnessing this firsthand). Practice relaxing: deep breath in...hold for 3 seconds...then out...repeat...👍

You will be fine. Let's look at some possibilities: they could be on vacation, doing research, teaching summer school, have relatives dying in the hospital, be remodeling the house, etc. There are a billion other things that your letter writers could be doing. Wait until August to nag (I mean that politely, btw. You can also read that as, "gently remind").

 

[sunnex3]

haha i'm so sorry i've been making you stressed, marsala! it's probably my most unattractive quality, as minnerbelle mentioned...however, it's difficult for me to get input from my peers because they are either a) my family, who doesn't really support me going to vet school or b) my friends, none of which are familiar with the application process. therefore, you guys are my sources for information! this site has been overwhelmingly helpful to me and i appreciate everyone's input. really 🙂

 

[sunnex3]

and also, i'm really trying not to be annoying with all these posts...i just go through brief stressing out episodes and then i'm fine for a while.

 

[LetItSnow]

lol, i'd work on keeping that in check. it's only june! people generally start the real freak out in a couple of months. you may very well be waiting until the last couple of weeks before all of your LORs are submitted, and your freaking out is not going to make it any better.

then you're going to freak out after it's submitted wondering if the vet schools got everything

then you're going to freak out and wonder if you should contact admissions every other day to clarify something

then you're going to freak out when people start hearing about interviews

then you're going to freak out when people start getting accepted/rejected

then you're going to freak out once you're accepted, and the freak outs might believe it or not get worse once you're in vet school!

it's just bad for your heart, and it's not attractive (i know from personal experience)!

👍👍👍👍

I think this entire post needs to be stickied and plastered at the top of SDN. I know I suckered myself into freaking out at every possible turn.

 

[heylodeb]

👍👍👍👍

I think this entire post needs to be stickied and plastered at the top of SDN. I know I suckered myself into freaking out at every possible turn.

It's kind of a right of passage though. Not that I would EVER do it again, but it's pretty darn unavoidable. I'm pretty sure my eyelid muscle is STILL sore from the amount of twitching it did during this last application cycle!

 

[StartingoverVet]

you may very well be waiting until the last couple of weeks before all of your LORs are submitted, and your freaking out is not going to make it any better.

then you're going to freak out after it's submitted wondering if the vet schools got everything

then you're going to freak out and wonder if you should contact admissions every other day to clarify something

then you're going to freak out when people start hearing about interviews

then you're going to freak out when people start getting accepted/rejected

then you're going to freak out once you're accepted,

and then you're going to freak out over student loans.

and then you're going to freak out about moving to a new place.

and then you're going to freak out about making friends.

and the freak outs might believe it or not get worse once you're in vet school!

it's just bad for your heart, and it's not attractive (i know from personal experience)!

C'mon y'all. We have to make this list comprehensive. Minnerbelle gave us a great start. I have continued it. Add yours in too!

 

[Coquette22]

you may very well be waiting until the last couple of weeks before all of your LORs are submitted, and your freaking out is not going to make it any better.

then you're going to freak out after it's submitted wondering if the vet schools got everything

then you're going to freak out and wonder if you should contact admissions every other day to clarify something

then you're going to freak out when people start hearing about interviews

then you're going to freak out when people start getting accepted/rejected

then if you're waitlisted, you're going to freak out waiting for the list to move,

then you're going to freak out once you're accepted,

and then you're going to freak out over student loans.

and then you're going to freak out about moving to a new place.

and then you're going to freak out about making friends.

and the freak outs might believe it or not get worse once you're in vet school!

it's just bad for your heart, and it's not attractive (i know from personal experience)!

 

[lostbunny]

I am NOT trying to freak you out... or make you stress...

But my advice is to make sure you send friendly reminders to them. I sent a reminder a week before, then a day before. I got one of my references the day I asked for it, and the 2nd one I didn't get in time because my LOR was out of the country, and forgot about it, and only remembered when they checked their email and came back from their trip!!! Thankfully I had asked an extra LOR and was able to meet the requirements.

Just a heads up. 🙂

ETA:
I meant to say... I got one of my references the day it was due, and another I got a few days after it was due. By 'due' I mean that I set a deadline about 3 weeks before the closing date, and so I sent everything in 2 weeks early.

 

[Chinola]

It's obviously much too early to be freaking out about it like everyone else said. But come August/September if your eLOR writers still haven't sent in your eLORs you could always show up at their offices to remind them. One of my professors claimed she couldn't find the emails so I went in to help her find them and then she finally filled them out right then and there. I also had one eLOR writer who was a vet and therefore knew the deadline not submit it until literally the last day. Talk about a freak out. And then for Tufts which has a deadline that's one month later, one of my professor's son's (the same prof who couldn't find the emails) was in the hospital and she wasn't doing any work. I had to call her personal cell phone and beg her to submit my eLOR and explain how it really couldn't wait any longer. So I understand the freaking out but they eventually get done and it's fine. I had no problems with my apps even though they were all submitted last minute.

 

[twelvetigers]

It's kind of a rite of passage though. Not that I would EVER do it again, but it's pretty darn unavoidable. I'm pretty sure my eyelid muscle is STILL sore from the amount of twitching it did during this last application cycle!

Ftfy. 🙂

 

[LetItSnow]

But come August/September if your eLOR writers still haven't sent in your eLORs you could always show up at their offices to remind them.

I think all three of mine turned their evaluations in within 4-5 days of the due date, in spite of me asking, getting their agreement, and putting in their information at least 3-4 months in advance. 🙂

(Yes, that's right, I went back to the basics and decided to make my teensy tiny pointless little stand against the LOR inflation battle of trying to have just ONE MORE LOR than the next applicant.)

 

[Dye It Purple]

(Yes, that's right, I went back to the basics and decided to make my teensy tiny pointless little stand against the LOR inflation battle of trying to have just ONE MORE LOR than the next applicant.)

lol, LIS. I was the same way. Quality before quantity. But anyway, I was polite, yet persistent with my evaluators and they came through in the end. With two of the three evaluators, the results came nearer to the closing date despite my putting them into the system almost the day VMCAS opened. Focus on the countless other elements of your application for the time being, but keep on them in the background. Visit them in person if you feel you must, but bring cookies! Cookies are the fastest way to anyone's heart!!

 

[sunnyshine]

I agree with what pretty much everyone else said. Just relax for now and get on their cases in Aug/Sep. Plus, from the the stats that you posted, I think your biggest problem is going to be deciding which offer of admission to accept.

It's kind of a right of passage though. Not that I would EVER do it again, but it's pretty darn unavoidable. I'm pretty sure my eyelid muscle is STILL sore from the amount of twitching it did during this last application cycle!

I completely agree. I think I would be more worried about an applicant who was nonchalant about everything.

 

[that redhead]

Patience, young grasshopper. The time to freak out (and write your PS and submit your supplementals and request your transcripts and take the GRE and..) is just before things are due. It seems most people wait until the last minute to submit, just something you'll need to accept.

 

[sunnex3]

thanks everyone for the advice...i totally agree that i'm freaking out a little too early. i think the biggest problem for me is that both of my academic LOR writers are at my college, where i just graduated from, so there really is no opprotunity for me to just "drop by their office" they're all the way in philly and i'm in DC! the only mode of communication i have with them is via email, which is why i was emailing them so early so they don't forget!

i will definitely worry more in august/september though if they still haen't gotten back to me by then...i'll just let it go for now 🙂

 

[Cautionary Tail]

I secured LOR writers six weeks before the deadline. One wrote hers in a week. Another took four. My former boss? Submitted hers the night before it was due and nearly gave me a coronary. 😳

Procrastination is pretty much par for the course when it comes to LORs. 😉

 

[twelvetigers]

I lined up four writers. I thougt they all had something to contribute, and I had been burned by some last minute crap previously, so the backup was nice. This year, I had three submit at least a month ahead, which was awesome. One was the night before.

 

[LetItSnow]

I lined up four writers. I thougt they all had something to contribute, and I had been burned by some last minute crap previously, so the backup was nice.

See, now that right there is a smart reason to go more than the minimum. I guess I stand corrected.

 

[StartingoverVet]

I went with 4 for a different reason. Needed 2 academic, and then I couldn't see picking amongst the 2 co-owners of the clinic I volunteered at for the last rec. By asking them both, I didn't have to show a preference. I am sure it made no difference to my application.

And I got one of the recs the day before one of the writers was leaving to climb Mt. Everest (well, "only" to the base camp). Wasn't likely to be able to track him down if he didn't send it then.

 

[Dye It Purple]

I agree that those are all fantastic reasons for going above the minimum number of LOR's - much better than the majority of the reasons I've heard mentioned by several others.

 

[Minnerbelle]

(Yes, that's right, I went back to the basics and decided to make my teensy tiny pointless little stand against the LOR inflation battle of trying to have just ONE MORE LOR than the next applicant.)

HA! I had 7 or 8! Beat that!!! I've even submitted an app with 11. I figured, if anything is going to make me stand out, it's going to be the obnoxious number of LORs. (and a little naive thinking that perhaps if one isn't so hot, then maybe the rest will make up for it?) Wasn't really my choice though... I blame it on the pre-health committee for asking me to keep submitting more and more.

P.S. Before anyone starts wondering how you could submit more than 7, the trick is to pack several in the form of one composite letter... Some schools like it, others think it's tacky and unfair. Just FYI.

 

[Cautionary Tail]

HA! I had 7 or 8! Beat that!!! I've even submitted an app with 11. I figured, if anything is going to make me stand out, it's going to be the obnoxious number of LORs. (and a little naive thinking that perhaps if one isn't so hot, then maybe the rest will make up for it?) Wasn't really my choice though... I blame it on the pre-health committee for asking me to keep submitting more and more.

P.S. Before anyone starts wondering how you could submit more than 7, the trick is to pack several in the form of one composite letter... Some schools like it, others think it's tacky and unfair. Just FYI.

Sneaky!

Is there really that much of an advantage to submitting extra LORs (apart from assurance against negligent and/or forgetful evaluators)? I thought a decent number of schools only accepted the first three...?

 

[sunnex3]

yeah i have 5 LORs so far mainly because a) tufts requires 2 academic LORs, so i had to get 2 of those, and b) two of the vets at the specialty hospital i work at who work in the same department, both of whom i've worked closely with, are just very different doctors in terms of personality and just the way they approach vet med, so i thought they could give a unique perspective of me. my 3rd vet LOR is from the medical director of the shelter medical center i work at, and she's been really great to me so far about letting me do a lot of stuff in the clinic (even when i was just a volunteer - this place is where i got a lot of my technical experience like placing catheters and intubating, neither of which i am allowed to do for legal reasons at the specialty hospital i work at).

 

[jmo1012]

Sneaky!

Is there really that much of an advantage to submitting extra LORs (apart from assurance against negligent and/or forgetful evaluators)? I thought a decent number of schools only accepted the first three...?

Yeah i'm pretty sure most will only look at 3 (either the 1st 3 or the 3 you specify) but other than having to pick for each school, i guess there's no harm in having a bunch

 

[Dye It Purple]

Sneaky!

Is there really that much of an advantage to submitting extra LORs (apart from assurance against negligent and/or forgetful evaluators)? I thought a decent number of schools only accepted the first three...?

That's really the big question isn't it? I've heard horror stories from my health professions advisor about some of the LOR's these schools receive. You're correct that a number of schools will only accept three letters anyway, which I think says something in itself. If you get it right the first three times, why do you need to get it right one, two, three, four more times? I also suspect that it becomes very tedious to read all these letters for the thousands of applicants these schools receive every year. Imagine being in their shoes and having to read pointless nonsense which contributes nothing new to the application just because someone wanted more letters in order to give themselves a perceived advantage. Short, sweet, effective. I think that's really what they want. I'm not saying that more LOR's might not help in certain situations, just that you should be careful in choosing your evaluators and make sure that they are people who can say something of consequence about you which is, hopefully, somewhat different from the last person. There's nothing a professional (or anyone for that matter) likes less than having their time wasted. Of course, I also definitely approve of the one-extra-just-in-case-all-the-others-fall-through LOR. That isn't such a crime.

Oh and btw, there's no issue with multiple vets or professors (or whatever) signing the same letter. This is what was done with one of my LOR's. This gives added weight to the same information.

 

[sunnex3]

That's really the big question isn't it? I've heard horror stories from my health professions advisor about some of the LOR's these schools receive. You're correct that a number of schools will only accept three letters anyway, which I think says something in itself. If you get it right the first three times, why do you need to get it right one, two, three, four more times? I also suspect that it becomes very tedious to read all these letters for the thousands of applicants these schools receive every year. Imagine being in their shoes and having to read pointless nonsense which contributes nothing new to the application just because someone wanted more letters in order to give themselves a perceived advantage. Short, sweet, effective. I think that's really what they want. I'm not saying that more LOR's might not help in certain situations, just that you should be careful in choosing your evaluators and make sure that they are people who can say something of consequence about you which is, hopefully, somewhat different from the last person. There's nothing a professional (or anyone for that matter) likes less than having their time wasted. Of course, I also definitely approve of the one-extra-just-in-case-all-the-others-fall-through LOR. That isn't such a crime.

Oh and btw, there's no issue with multiple vets or professors (or whatever) signing the same letter. This is what was done with one of my LOR's. This gives added weight to the same information.

i've actually been dbeating whether to do this or not! as i previously mentioned, i'm getting LORs from two vets in the same department (internal medicine) at the specialty hospital i've worked at for the past 3 summers. they're both very different vets but both of them know me pretty well and both have agreed to write a LOR for me...too much to think about.

 

[Dye It Purple]

i've actually been dbeating whether to do this or not! as i previously mentioned, i'm getting LORs from two vets in the same department (internal medicine) at the specialty hospital i've worked at for the past 3 summers. they're both very different vets but both of them know me pretty well and both have agreed to write a LOR for me...too much to think about.

It's up to you. Take my advice with a grain of salt. You know your own situation better than I do after all. In my case, I had two program directors for one of my extracurriculars sign a joint letter. I just listed it under the primary director in VMCAS, but they both sat down and hashed out my letter together fitting in all the things they both wanted to say about me and consolidating their information into one concise, yet informative, letter.

 

[Minnerbelle]

yeah... like i said, some schools like seeing committee letters and say send in as many as you want (and because i went through the pre-health committee at my college, I kinda had to do whatever they told me to do). others hate any extra letters, will NOT read more than three, and probably think less of you for having done so. what also sucks is that some schools will pick randomly if you submit more than three.

 

[jmo1012]

eh my understanding is that if they say 3, they will look at no more than 3 so it really doesnt matter if you submit 3 or 6. if thats the case with your schools, i'd be telling the schools to look at x academic, y internist, and z shelter vet so that you get a broad view, unless you feel like academic and/or internist #2 are a better fit. if you don't tell them which 3 to look at, they are going to choose for you (and if you don't care, then awesome, thats a weight off your shoulders)

ETA:

others hate any extra letters, will NOT read more than three, and probably think less of you for having done so.

i would hope they would penalize you for submitting more than 3 through the VMCAS (if its a separate app then its fair game) because you could be applying to schools that will allow more

 

[NStarz]

yeah... like i said, some schools like seeing committee letters and say send in as many as you want (and because i went through the pre-health committee at my college, I kinda had to do whatever they told me to do). others hate any extra letters, will NOT read more than three, and probably think less of you for having done so. what also sucks is that some schools will pick randomly if you submit more than three.

I think if you email the schools and tell them what LORs you want them to read, they'll take that into account. That's what I plan on doing--just to satisfy all of the different schools' requirements.

 

[sunnex3]

I think if you email the schools and tell them what LORs you want them to read, they'll take that into account. That's what I plan on doing--just to satisfy all of the different schools' requirements.

my understanding was that for schools that won't read more than 3, they'll just look at the first 3 listed on VMCAS? so i was just planning on putting the 3 that i definitely want read by those schools that won't read more 3, and that way schools that dont' care can just read all of them?

 

[Cautionary Tail]

my understanding was that for schools that won't read more than 3, they'll just look at the first 3 listed on VMCAS? so i was just planning on putting the 3 that i definitely want read by those schools that won't read more 3, and that way schools that dont' care can just read all of them?

I think that last year, for CSU, you could specify on your supplemental application... but if you didn't, they'd just take the first three off VMCAS. I don't remember what the situation was at the other schools I applied to.

 

[Minnerbelle]

I think if you email the schools and tell them what LORs you want them to read, they'll take that into account. That's what I plan on doing--just to satisfy all of the different schools' requirements.

Guess it couldn't hurt.

What I ended up doing was putting 4 eLORs in I think (the most important ones), plus a paper committee letter. The schools that only read 3 almost always require eLORs, and will not look at paper letters. That way they didn't really really have too much to choose from, and I felt like the 4 eLORs I put in were all just as strong and I didn't really have a preference about which ones they read.

 

[Dye It Purple]

my understanding was that for schools that won't read more than 3, they'll just look at the first 3 listed on VMCAS? so i was just planning on putting the 3 that i definitely want read by those schools that won't read more 3, and that way schools that dont' care can just read all of them?

I don't know how to answer all of your question here, so I'll leave the rest to others. But, I do know that some of the schools will ask you to specify exactly which three you want them to read. This was the case when I filled out CSU's secondary application.

 

[jmo1012]

my understanding was that for schools that won't read more than 3, they'll just look at the first 3 listed on VMCAS? so i was just planning on putting the 3 that i definitely want read by those schools that won't read more 3, and that way schools that dont' care can just read all of them?

i think most will allow you to tell them which 3 you want via email if they dont ask in the supplemental.

one thing that might be worth checking into with vmcas is whether the eLORs get listed by your entering them or by their submission. i can't remember if my roommate and i ever figured out the answer to this last year (it ended up being irrelevant because the school she applied to accepted all eLORs at the last second)

 

[Minnerbelle]

I don't know how to answer all of your question here, so I'll leave the rest to others. But, I do know that some of the schools will ask you to specify exactly which three you want them to read. This was the case when I filled out CSU's secondary application.

Yep. Some do ask specifically. Others don't. I dunno if they randomly select, or if they read the first three on the vmcas. I think it's different for each school. If you really want to know, email/call the admissions office for each school you're applying to and ask. If anything, say that because different schools have different LOR requirements you may end up with extra LORs being sent in, and ask their opinion on how they would recommend that you input your LORs.

 

[lareinesoleil]

you may very well be waiting until the last couple of weeks before all of your LORs are submitted, and your freaking out is not going to make it any better.

then you're going to freak out after it's submitted wondering if the vet schools got everything

then you're going to freak out and wonder if you should contact admissions every other day to clarify something

then you're going to freak out because you reread your application, found a minor (or major!) mistake that somehow you missed, and become convinced that it's going to keep you out of vet school

then you're going to freak out when people start hearing about interviews

then you're going to freak out when people start getting accepted/rejected

then if you're waitlisted, you're going to freak out waiting for the list to move,

then you're going to freak out once you're accepted,

and then you're going to freak out over student loans.

and then you're going to freak out about moving to a new place.

and then you're going to freak out about making friends.

and the freak outs might believe it or not get worse once you're in vet school!

it's just bad for your heart, and it's not attractive (i know from personal experience)!

 

[Chinola]

then you're going to freak out because you reread your application, found a minor (or major!) mistake that somehow you missed, and become convinced that it's going to keep you out of vet school

I was supposed to have written the words "wound care" in my description of my duties at one of my vet tech jobs. After submitting VMCAS and looking through my app a while later I saw that I wrote "would care". I was soooo upset and freaked out about that stupid typo. Good thing it didn't matter! 😀

 

[Cautionary Tail]

I was supposed to have written the words "wound care" in my description of my duties at one of my vet tech jobs. After submitting VMCAS and looking through my app a while later I saw that I wrote "would care". I was soooo upset and freaked out about that stupid typo. Good thing it didn't matter! 😀

I had a 'his' instead of 'this' in the first paragraph of my PS that, for some reason, the MS Word grammar thingy completely missed. As did I. And my mom.

And hopefully, the adcoms. 😀

 

[EllieGirl89]

I was supposed to have written the words "wound care" in my description of my duties at one of my vet tech jobs. After submitting VMCAS and looking through my app a while later I saw that I wrote "would care". I was soooo upset and freaked out about that stupid typo. Good thing it didn't matter! 😀

I wrote something that was pretty much the opposite of correct (the way I worded it) on my supplemental and was convinced I'd made myself look like a tool. I realized it the morning after I'd clicked the submit button and stood in the shower crying for like, 20 minutes.

 

[LetItSnow]

I wrote something that was pretty much the opposite of correct (the way I worded it) on my supplemental and was convinced I'd made myself look like a tool. I realized it the morning after I'd clicked the submit button and stood in the shower crying for like, 20 minutes.

My application was perfect in every single way.

Yep.

 

[Minnerbelle]

I was working a ton with mice embryos and fetal bovine serum for tissue culture as I was applying to vet school.

I meant to write fatal-plus in my PS, but instead wrote fetal-plus. I didn't even notice until a month or two down the road, I wrote something similar on SDN and someone noticed. Apparently, the cat was getting fertility treatment rather than euthanasia...