So...when to remind a prof about a rec letter?

[monkeyMD]

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It's been a month, but nothing has been submitted. Should I remind the professor about it, and if so, how should I do this? Is email sufficient?

When do professors usually submit the letters?

 

[Danlee07]

Yeah, for one of my jobs I just asked about 6 months ahead of time. Every month I went in to meet with her until eventually 2 months before, I received the letter. Possibly a different scenario from me since I was pretty cool with my professor.

 

[LEUNIT]

After I asked my professor in May, the month of June came around with no letter. As I was doing my apps, I emailed the professor and was like, "So where's my letter, mayne?" And he was like, "My fault, playa. I'll get it to ya in a hot minute." So I was like, "All right, coo." Got my letter like two days later.

 

[hmockingbird]

Yeah, I think if it's been a month it's fine to remind them. My pre-med committee has an electronic letter system that will automatically remind professors for you after a certain time has passed with no letter so clearly my school thinks email is ok. I'm sure you can think of a polite wording, how's the status or how is it coming along, maybe say if they need more info (like an updated resume) they can let you know. I emailed a prof to remind her for a study abroad LOR and she didn't have a problem and actually admitted she forgot to write it. LOL.

 

[chrisski]

SDN is like a reality tv channel where they keep showing the same reruns over and over. But for some reason, you just can't stop watching. I feel like a more comprehensive FAQ is on order, with questions such as the title of this thread, "to withdraw or not to withdraw", etc, etc. Or we can just keep answering them, thats cool also.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

It's been a month, but nothing has been submitted. Should I remind the professor about it, and if so, how should I do this? Is email sufficient?

When do professors usually submit the letters?

It all depends on how close/comfortable you are with the letter writer. If I were (and I have been) in your situation, I would remind the person by email and possibly in person. Keep in mind it can be very difficult to get someone to actually sit down to write you the letter, but it will probably only take the person less than hour to do it.

 

[bookfreak89]

After I asked my professor in May, the month of June came around with no letter. As I was doing my apps, I emailed the professor and was like, "So where's my letter, mayne?" And he was like, "My fault, playa. I'll get it to ya in a hot minute." So I was like, "All right, coo." Got my letter like two days later.

It all depends on how close/comfortable you are with the letter writer. If I were (and I have been) in your situation, I would remind the person by email and possibly in person. Keep in mind it can be very difficult to get someone to actually sit down to write you the letter, but it will probably only take the person less than hour to do it.

Agreed. I asked one of my science professors to write me a LOR for a summer program. As the deadline approached, I emailed him a reminder and he told me to come in the next day and pick it up. I went the next day, and he hadn't written it, so he goes to his computer and opens up a word document that already has a nice LOR pre-written. He just made some changes and gave that to me. Took like 3 minutes. 🙄

To the OP, some of my professors were used to the pre-med grind and knew the deadlines because s/he had 10-15 other students they needed to write letters for. In that case, I sent one reminder because other students were also sending reminders and we all had the same deadline. Other LOR writers were busy or may have forgotten the deadline, so I sent a reminder every month or so.

 

[flip26]

Some profs don't start writing any letters until May or June. Prof should have told you this when you made the request, but I had one who didn't and I unnecessarily pestered him.

Ask around and find out when this prof typically writes rec letters. Or ask him if it is really bugging you that much...