Following Up With Your Letter Writers
This post is part of a series on how to get great letters of recommendation to grad school.
Odds are very good that your letter writer will completely forget about your letter. They are busy folks and you are pretty low down their totem pole of importance. Take no offence by this. Luckily, because you gave them a hard-copy folder, they probably have to remind themselves every once in awhile when they stumble across the folder on their desk. But, how often should you follow up? When is it okay to worry that they won’t submit your letter? How can you ensure that it gets submitted early?
First you need to do your part. The day after your initial meeting with them, you should go online to all the online portals you know of so far and submit their name and email as a letter writer. This will (usually) send them an automated email with instructions for submitting their letter. This will be their first reminder. They will get an email the day after your conversation, pushing this to the top of their mind (As, most likely, they’ve already tried to suppress the thought that they have even more work to do now).
Then you wait. Wait until it is no longer comfortable to wait, and then wait some more. If you ask them three months in advance, you can usually expect two months and three weeks of radio silence before your letter is submitted.
My general rule of thumb is to send your first reminder email two to three weeks before your due date. Often times, the due date for letter writers is a few days after the student deadline (verify this for your individual applications!) But, it is best to not tell your letter writer that they have an extended deadline… tell them your deadline and ask them to submit it by then.
In this first reminder email, be short, friendly, excited, and direct. “Hi professor, I hope you are well. I am excited to submit my application, and I just wanted to remind you that the deadline for my application is December 1st. Will you still be able to submit a letter of recommendation for me by that time?”
If they reply and say yes, great! Follow up again a week before it’s due.
If they don’t reply… then it can get a little tricky, as they probably saw your email and forgot to reply. Follow up in person. Stop by their office, be friendly (not panicked), and ask if they received your email, and remind them of the due date.
In either case, follow up again a week before your deadline.
If it gets to be a couple of days before the deadline and they still haven’t submitted your letter, I would send a more frantic-sounding email. “Hi professor, I was just checking over all of my application materials for Stanford, and I see that you are my only letter writer who hasn’t submitted a letter yet. I’m sorry to bother you, but will you be able to submit before the deadline? I would really like to have everything uploaded and submitted before the deadline, in case there is a lot of site traffic on the due date, which would make it hard for me to submit!”
Following up is completely expected and normal, usually it is a welcomed reminder. It also lets your letter writer know that you are on top of everything yourself, which is a good quality. Try to be humble and as least annoying as possible. Always recognize that your letter writer is probably very busy and has a lot of other things to do. But, don’t feel bad about giving them a gentle nudge here and there to get it done. In everything you do, be thankful for their time and never give them a reason to believe that you feel entitled.
My general rule for following up is two weeks before, one week before, and a few days before. If they don’t respond to any of these, find them in person to follow up.
