Professor taking forever to submit LOR...What to do?

[poptropica]

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Ok, so here's the deal. My chem professor is writing me a letter of recommendation for pharmacy school. I went in early, I gave him a month (which should be enough time to get a letter in) It's been a month and a half..... and still no lor submitted by my professor.

Does it really take that long to get it in? What should I do now, go bug my professor, e-mail, any other ideas?

 

[busyizzy]

Ok, so here's the deal. My chem professor is writing me a letter of recommendation for pharmacy school. I went in early, I gave him a month (which should be enough time to get a letter in) It's been a month and a half..... and still no lor submitted by my professor.

Does it really take that long to get it in? What should I do now, go bug my professor, e-mail, any other ideas?

A month is standard time to give to someone to write a LOR. Really, just for insurance, I always allotted for more time.

It depends on the professor. If it is the electronic version, it is submitted as soon as the professor submits it, so really either your professor is being really busy or really lazy - or both.

Time to start sending polite reminder emails. Professors appreciate those. They are busy people, and they forget. One of my professors requested I send an email reminder 10 days before the deadline. Send in a polite email reminder about the deadline, and ask if there is any difficulty meeting the deadline. Maybe you could write a thing about having it sooner is better, or while the deadline is x date, you'd like it by an earlier y date so you can make sure your application is complete and all in order.

Good luck.

 

[BuBbLiEbOo]

I agree with what Izzy said about the friendly reminders. Sometimes, (science research) professors might go away for conferences. Especially if they are also teaching, it could get really hectic for them since they are managing exams and grades and all that good stuff at the end of the quarter/semester. I was in the same situation as you last year. I asked one of my professors to write me a LOR (2 months before the deadline), she agreed to do it. But then she totally forgot about it, when I emailed her couple weeks before the deadline, NO RESPONSE. I never heard from her again, NOTHING. Good thing I had asked several professors, otherwise, my application would have been incomplete. Maybe you can think about asking one more professor, it doesn't hurt to have more than 3 LORs (I think).