Professor taking forever!!

DATBooster | The Ultimate DAT Resource
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
zsmilez14

zsmilez14

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2009
Messages
123
Reaction score
0
Anyone else's prof is taking forever on writing their recommendation letter?? I need someone to complain with, lol. He's holding me up...argh!
Members don't see this ad.
 
zsmilez14 said:
Anyone else's prof is taking forever on writing their recommendation letter?? I need someone to complain with, lol. He's holding me up...argh!
Click to expand...


My mentor went on vacation out of country for the summer to do research and I had to wait until mid-Sept before my LOR was sent out. I feel for you.
 
so I take it you sent your application before the LOR was sent? I'm considering doing that...
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I'm in a similar situation with my dentist letter...I met with him previously right around the beginning of June and he assured me it would be no problem to write the LOR and that it would only take the weekend...and my app's been mailed and still no letter. He hasn't returned any of my phone calls to his office, and he only responded to one email simply saying he was working on it without giving me any estimated completion date. It's starting to get me worried that he's going to screw me over...hopefully he is just ridiculously busy, but the fact that he has been ignoring my phone calls makes me think he is trying to blow it off. It sucks! 🙁
 
vlct0ria said:
I'm in a similar situation with my dentist letter...I met with him previously right around the beginning of June and he assured me it would be no problem to write the LOR and that it would only take the weekend...and my app's been mailed and still no letter. He hasn't returned any of my phone calls to his office, and he only responded to one email simply saying he was working on it without giving me any estimated completion date. It's starting to get me worried that he's going to screw me over...hopefully he is just ridiculously busy, but the fact that he has been ignoring my phone calls makes me think he is trying to blow it off. It sucks! 🙁
Click to expand...
still?? just show up at his office and ask to speak with him-explain your situation in person and how important his letter is to your application.
 
i asked mine in may and still nothing...but he told me to bug him about it every week, lol. i'm just wondering how many more weeks this is going to take...
 
email them multiple times. I did that . i got 3 of them. I might add another one. but i'm gonna wait a little more
 
zsmilez14 said:
Anyone else's prof is taking forever on writing their recommendation letter?? I need someone to complain with, lol. He's holding me up...argh!
Click to expand...

Is it a committee letter?

My personal experience was with a committee letter. For this letter you need to ask a total of 6 proffs to write one. I ended up having all mine turned in except one and he was the proff i am doing research for😱! He kept saying he is working on it. Well, come June 14th, two weeks after application opened and no letter. . . F-it and sent it without it.

Maybe you should ask another professor to write one. If your professor is ignoring calls and emails and doesnt sound like he/she cares, then you probs wont have a very good letter of rec.

If you bug them too much, they may just send a letter saying "recommend with reservations," or worse yet, "do not recommend under any circumstances."

Then you would be totally screwed.

But you should get that taken care of ASAP.
 
Same here! I'm still waiting for my last letter from dentist to arrive........... I think I would ask him casually how the letter is going.
 
hsc1986 said:
Same here! I'm still waiting for my last letter from dentist to arrive........... I think I would ask him casually how the letter is going.
Click to expand...

I tried asking casually too...I basically nudged the idea by asking if he had received the email and the information from AADSAS about how to submit the letter, and he just responded with "Yes I have received the required materials"...and I sent back an email essentially asking him if he was nearly finished with it since the apps have been mailed out, but no reply. My app won't be complete anyway for another month-ish because I don't have my DAT scores yet, but I guess I will keep bugging him in the mean time.

I wish I could stop by his office! But I'm not in town right now...its a 6.5 hour drive!
 
6 hours...I feel your pain. I'm a little afraid of 'pushing' him to write the letter because he had a bad reputation (the assistants told me he was an 'arrogant pig') but since I cannot change my LOE after submitting application, I guess I would just have to wait.
Does it really take 2-3 weeks for the scores to be released?
 
I'm on the same boat but i guess its a lil different! my letter is a committee letter, and basically have to connect 7 letters from different ppl and hve to get it to the committee in my school.. I turned all 7 letters the second day of June, but still they have not send out my committee letter out to AADSAS.. its pissing me off too..! cuz its reallly holding up my application, when I did all of my part early!
 
you're not the only one. I asked my prof in mid april to write me one. She told me it would be ready June 1st. She just turned it in this week. BTW... i had my application finished june 1st so it was even more frustrating.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Yeah I'm still waiting on my dentist LOE as well. I met with him last month and he said he would do it over his vacation, which has already been over. I emailed him asking if he received the instructions, and he said he did...hopefully he gets it in soon.
 
I was waiting for my O chem teacher to write my letter since June 1st, she is the master of blowing people off. My other 3 letters were all in by June 6th. I wrote her about 15 emails since then and left about 10 messages on her office phone without a single peep from her. Finally, Monday morning she emailed me back, apologizing profusely and asking for the link to submit the letter again. I resubmitted her as an evaluator and an hour later she had sent the letter in. Basically, I'm just saying keep the hope alive. This woman dodged me for over a month without a single word and then just out of the blue sent my letter in.
 
Albuterol said:
still?? just show up at his office and ask to speak with him-explain your situation in person and how important his letter is to your application.
Click to expand...

Yeah and make sure you wear loose fitting shoes so you can easily take one off and use it to pound it on the countertop.
 
Last edited:
Ahh! I'm getting frustrated for everyone now, bad idea to start this thread, lol. My professor is the director for my program, so I guess he's busy. The good thing is that he is answering my phone calls, the bad thing is it's taken him 2 months to still get to writing it :-/
 
I feel you guys... I gave my professor a packet with everything in it including a letter that states my intents and date I want it to be finished. I emailed heads up as well a week in advance. Then when that date came around I emailed him to see how it was going and he didnt even respond till the 2nd or 3rd time. His response: I though you wanted in done in 2 weeks. So I said that would work.... but guess what... 2 weeks past and nothing. So I been trying to contact him and it was been an additional 2/3 weeks with not even a response.
:boom:
 
geez..i thought i was the only one...lol yea i'm also waiting for the committee letter..it sucks because its the summer and most of them are not there...it will all work out though..we just gotta be patient! 🙂
 
Same here. I took my DAT in May 30th, but they are still writing my recommendations. I asked them when it will be done, they said hopefully by this month. I have sent them emails about this issue couple times and don't know what to do.
 
vlct0ria said:
I'm in a similar situation with my dentist letter...I met with him previously right around the beginning of June and he assured me it would be no problem to write the LOR and that it would only take the weekend...and my app's been mailed and still no letter. He hasn't returned any of my phone calls to his office, and he only responded to one email simply saying he was working on it without giving me any estimated completion date. It's starting to get me worried that he's going to screw me over...hopefully he is just ridiculously busy, but the fact that he has been ignoring my phone calls makes me think he is trying to blow it off. It sucks! 🙁
Click to expand...

I can't believe that you're still waiting....well, I am too... I mentioned it last Monday and she said said that she had started working on it...and before I left I gave her a gift card to her favorite spa thanking her for writing me a rec and everything she has taught me.... here's to hoping that's a little motivation!
 
Better safe then sorry, get another prof if you can. If this guy ends up giving it in it wouldnt hurt anyone.
 
I'm also waiting on a professor and he said he would send it in 2 weeks ago, still nothing. I'm about to drop him and tell my committee to write the letter without his.
 
i totally feel you guys here. it's been such a pain to be able to do nothing but just wait until they get back to me, checkin the mailbox everyday morning just to find out no replies yet, runnin out of ideas to word it differently to ask politely if the letter's nearly done... i had one professor who ignored all of my emails and phone calls for over 6 weeks after he confidently promised me to write one, I just broke into his office one day only to hear him saying "I thought you'd find another guy who knows better than me so he can write you a better letter." what an excuse.
 
i emailed my prof in april and he told me he's busy with research but to email him back mid-july. the good news is that HE actually emailed me yesterday telling me he's going on a trip but he's gonna work on it now and asked for my personal statement!
question is, will he actually get it done if he's on a trip? lol
 
DJwreckx said:
i totally feel you guys here. it's been such a pain to be able to do nothing but just wait until they get back to me, checkin the mailbox everyday morning just to find out no replies yet, runnin out of ideas to word it differently to ask politely if the letter's nearly done... i had one professor who ignored all of my emails and phone calls for over 6 weeks after he confidently promised me to write one, I just broke into his office one day only to hear him saying "I thought you'd find another guy who knows better than me so he can write you a better letter." what an excuse.
Click to expand...

He's hinting you dude.
 
My dentist still has not finished my letter. I'm not sure if he's even started and he's had so much time! I keep reminding him and his most recent email reply was that it's on the top of his to-do list. Greeaaat.
 
At this point, if your professor took this long to write your letter I doubt it will be any good. The funny thing is that my professor was my research advisor so it's like I need his letter but if it's taking him this long I'm probably better without it. I'm giving him one more week and if he doesn't get it in by my DATs I'm dropping him.
 
bennijai said:
At this point, if your professor took this long to write your letter I doubt it will be any good. The funny thing is that my professor was my research advisor so it's like I need his letter but if it's taking him this long I'm probably better without it. I'm giving him one more week and if he doesn't get it in by my DATs I'm dropping him.
Click to expand...

I wish my missing LOR was a less important one (I mean, they're all important, but I doubt every single person has 3+ HIGH quality letters)...but its my dentist LOR, which is required for some schools. Ughhh it's really getting on my nerves!
 
DrKumar43210 said:
HAHA I had the same problem. I told my prof that I needed a letter a week before AADSAS opened. I gave him my transcripts, personal statement, resume. He said it wouldn't be a problem and that it would take him a couple of weeks. I didn't hear anything for a month so I kept hounding him and calling his office phone and emailing him and he FINALLY submitted it TODAY! Only about 2 months later!
Click to expand...

I gave up on that professor and asked another professor who knows me much better (who also said it would be done asap). :banana: and :xf:
 
vlct0ria said:
I wish my missing LOR was a less important one (I mean, they're all important, but I doubt every single person has 3+ HIGH quality letters)...but its my dentist LOR, which is required for some schools. Ughhh it's really getting on my nerves!
Click to expand...

Doesnt it just drive you crazy when you know schools may be waiting for a letter, but you can do nothing about it......
 
zsmilez14 said:
Anyone else's prof is taking forever on writing their recommendation letter?? I need someone to complain with, lol. He's holding me up...argh!
Click to expand...

It is unlikely that writing loes is part of the job description for a staff position at any university. Complaining to the head of the department on your dilemma should net you some interesting results and is certain to get the prof to write your letter asap if not sooner.
 
My O. Chem teacher is notoriously slow at grading so I assumed he'd be slow at writing my LoR and he is. I sent him an e-mail at the end of June and then again in July to see if he'd finished it or at least started on it but never got a response.

He told me to bug him about it. He said I could call him in his office but I think I'd feel weird doing that.

I sent him the AADSAS thing and it hasn't been filled by him or my physics teacher, but my Gen. Chem teacher uploaded hers, so I don't know what the deal is.
 
So my dentist finally contacted me today about my letter - he's finishing it today (thank God) but I'm worried about whether or not it'll be good. He asked if there was anything else I wanted him to include (put on the spot, I could think of nothing) but he said I could email him today if I thought of anything. What does a dentist letter include? Anyone know the general points that they're supposed to cover?
 
flying rider said:
So my dentist finally contacted me today about my letter - he's finishing it today (thank God) but I'm worried about whether or not it'll be good. He asked if there was anything else I wanted him to include (put on the spot, I could think of nothing) but he said I could email him today if I thought of anything. What does a dentist letter include? Anyone know the general points that they're supposed to cover?
Click to expand...

Make sure he mentions how many hours you shadowed him, b/c some schools such as Tufts require at least 30 shadowing hours, and it should be included in the LOE.
 
Yay! My dentist FINALLY turned in my LOE 😀 :biglove:
 
Hallelujah, my dentist finally submitted my letter too- almost 8 weeks later! Nothing left to do except study for the DAT and work on supplementals! :soexcited:
 
Contach said:
nice, just rub it in to the OP
Click to expand...

Haha no, I wasn't trying to do that...I, like toothytay, just wanted to celebrate after waiting foreverrr! And who knows, the OP hasn't posted in over 2 weeks, maybe his prof finally submitted by now 😛
 
oh man...I am getting a little nervous with my last letter that's not in still!!! So annoyed right now!!! My mentor did send the letter in 2 weeks ago but she forgot to sign it. So my pre-health office returned it to her and asked her to sign it. So 2 more weeks have gone by and I still haven't heard anything. Finally I called my mentor and she told me she never received the letter back, so she's going to send the office another copy..GOSH I can't wait for my letter to be in and have this application package over and done with!!!
 
keep up the hope..... or you could do something to help yourself... like I said in one of my previous posts, I decided to give up on my advisor and ask another professor (who actually know me much better). This new professor got in done within a weeks time. And I truely believe it is going to be my best letter (why I didnt ask this professor right away continues to boggle my mind).
 
zsmilez14 said:
Anyone else's prof is taking forever on writing their recommendation letter?? I need someone to complain with, lol. He's holding me up...argh!
Click to expand...

I feel you. I had the same situation, however, I guess my letter was one of the first sent out, so I can't complain.

My pre-med friend had the same problem except worse. She told her evaluator to send off her letter at a specific time period. After checking up on her LOE update, she found out that her evaluator went on vacation and wouldn't be back until august. My friends' paperwork was sitting on the evaluators desk, untouched and unfinished. She was offered an interview at a medical school in antigua but they couldn't interview her until she had all her LOE in.

It should be put on FML.
 
doc toothache said:
It is unlikely that writing loes is part of the job description for a staff position at any university. Complaining to the head of the department on your dilemma should net you some interesting results and is certain to get the prof to write your letter asap if not sooner.
Click to expand...

i disagree. you don't want to piss off your evaluator. i think staying in contact and continually giving reminders and hints will help. it worked for me. my prof finally sent it in today!
 
My dentist finally submitted his LOE this morning! After 2 months...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
Science Professor
Replies
3
Views
868
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
P
Which recommendation letter from a science professor is better?
Replies
2
Views
1K
ptsouth
P
D
Does my LOR from my Ecology/Conservation/Biodiversity Professor Count?
Replies
2
Views
944
__deadroseht
D
BodegaCat
LOR from physiology professor (Faculty of Medicine)?
Replies
2
Views
748
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
Y
Health science professor for science recommendation letter requirement?
Replies
3
Views
744
Lemillion
Lemillion
Top