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How do I write a reference letter?

How common is it for an academic reference for graduate school to agree to write a letter of recommendation and then never follow through?

  • One of my academic references, (let's call him Mark) agreed to write a letter for me back in September for a program which has a December 31st application deadline. As of December 8th, he has still not started the process. In addition, he has stopped responding to my emails for more than a month and hasn't returned two recent phone calls. I checked with someone who knows Mark to make sure nothing serious had happened to him. Apparently, they see him regularly and he's just fine.  At this point, I have serious doubts about his intention to submit the letter before the deadline. In addition, with the short amount of time I have left, I don't really have a back up person that I can ask to write a letter on such short notice. What can be done about this?

  • Answer:

    I have found that most of the time submitting a letter is low on their list of priorities. This is not really surprising seeing as how busy these people usually are. They usually submit at the LAST minute and a I think they just honestly forget until the day before the deadline. Forget the emails and phone calls. Drop by his office and offer a friendly reminder. If he still does nothing go again like 2 days before. Also, I think that you still have enough time to ask someone else if you really want to. 3 weeks is just on the edge of being too late but if you do it tactfully and explain your situation I'm sure a reasonable professor would try and help you out.

Brandon McLaughlin at Quora Visit the source

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When I applied for MIT (PhD), 2 of my academic references turned me down: The first one told me straight that he didn't want me to leave France as elite students should stay in the country that brought them education. Although flattering, it wasn't very useful for my MIT application. But at least, he was honest with me and we are still in very good terms. The second one was an issue: he agreed to write a letter of recommendation in early October when I asked him and then never followed through, just like yours. Then, the night before the deadline, he told me he did not want to write me a letter anymore as he wanted me to stay on the project I was working on at that time. So what did I do about this? I simply asked other profs I knew, and always made sure that the deadline I told them was before the actual deadline.

Franck Dernoncourt

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