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Hello TL, I call upon your great wealth of knowledge to aid me. I'm applying to a PhD program in population biology, eco, evo and I submitted it about a month ago. Prior to that I contacted 3 letters of rec writers, 1 of whom was my former PI, 1 which is my current boss, and my last one was a prof I had in college. The first two writers were submitted more than 3 weeks ago but the third has been dragging on and the deadline is Jan 3rd.
The guys who've finished writing theirs I knew pretty well, but I needed one more so I picked a random professor that seemed to be pretty nice. 2 weeks ago I email him and he says he's overbooked but can do it. I email him on Monday and he gets back that he needs more information, I've sent him my CV and my application essay. Should I essentially write something for him? I don't really remember too much of what happened in that class, I feel like I have two strong recs so I just need a third to finish this application, what should I do TL?
 
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Osaka27093 Posts
 that sucks. I would badger the guy until he coughs it up. He agreed to do it, so he should follow through.
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This happened to me in college too. I think it's more than reasonable to send him a reminder e-mail. A lot of the times, profs may be too busy and simply forget what they had promised; a reminder is actually the courteous thing to do.
He should be able to pull through though.
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Well, he responded today saying he needs more information to be able to complete it. You guys think thats a euphemism for "write your own and send to me to sign"? To be honest I don't remember much about what happened in the class besides subject material (bayesian statistics for computational biology). Damn, when I contacted him 2 weeks ago and he said he was overbooked I was considering finding another writer but then he said he would have time.
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Yeah I've heard of a bunch of people that just wrote their own and got them signed. I would probably send him the info he wants in the form of an almost rec letter so he just has to edit it a bit and sign. In the future, always ask for an extra letter or two and use the first three you get. Someone is always lazy.
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On December 29 2010 10:31 ZeaL. wrote:
Well, he responded today saying he needs more information to be able to complete it. You guys think thats a euphemism for "write your own and send to me to sign"? To be honest I don't remember much about what happened in the class besides subject material (bayesian statistics for computational biology). Damn, when I contacted him 2 weeks ago and he said he was overbooked I was considering finding another writer but then he said he would have time.
Oh I didn't know he wrote back today.
Maybe you should visit him in person if possible and ask him exactly what he meant by "more information"?
One of my profs had me write him a draft, but he was very upfront about it.
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On December 29 2010 10:36 Zim23 wrote:
In the future, always ask for an extra letter or two and use the first three you get. Someone is always lazy.
Good advice. Also, if you ask for a letter of recommendation and get anything but an enthusiastic response, find someone else. I had the same issue when I applied for law school back in the day.
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Yeah, good advice to put in the life hack thread. If you need 3 recs, ask for 4 or 5 just to be safe.
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My deadline is Dec 31st and one of my recommenders didn't submit for me yet.... despite numerous reminders.
There isn't much I can do at this time except be patient and wait To be honest, I don't think a late recommendation will impact my application very much (hey, if he is lazy, it's not my fault).
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Thanks for the tips guys, I'm probably gonna send him an email to clarify what he means and then worst comes worst I'll write a rough recommendation and send it to him this weekend. I wish I had asked this question earlier and gotten a backup cause this is kind of ruining my vacation time.
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On December 29 2010 10:52 ShadowDrgn wrote:Show nested quote +On December 29 2010 10:36 Zim23 wrote:
In the future, always ask for an extra letter or two and use the first three you get. Someone is always lazy. Good advice. Also, if you ask for a letter of recommendation and get anything but an enthusiastic response, find someone else. I had the same issue when I applied for law school back in the day.
I don't think this is good advice. Letters of recommendation take a *long* time to write. A good one can take 2-4 hours. And professors are busy people. If you ask a 4th professor to write you a letter, and you don't end up using it, you may have burned a bridge with an important connection.
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On December 29 2010 12:07 Random_0 wrote:Show nested quote +On December 29 2010 10:52 ShadowDrgn wrote:On December 29 2010 10:36 Zim23 wrote:
In the future, always ask for an extra letter or two and use the first three you get. Someone is always lazy. Good advice. Also, if you ask for a letter of recommendation and get anything but an enthusiastic response, find someone else. I had the same issue when I applied for law school back in the day. I don't think this is good advice. Letters of recommendation take a *long* time to write. A good one can take 2-4 hours. And professors are busy people. If you ask a 4th professor to write you a letter, and you don't end up using it, you may have burned a bridge with an important connection.
You don't tell the prof you aren't going to use it. You take that shit from 'em and they'll never ever find out.
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On December 29 2010 12:07 ZeaL. wrote:
Thanks for the tips guys, I'm probably gonna send him an email to clarify what he means and then worst comes worst I'll write a rough recommendation and send it to him this weekend. I wish I had asked this question earlier and gotten a backup cause this is kind of ruining my vacation time.
Before you send an e-mail, consider the kind of information he wants. For a Ph.D. program, I think the following are the most important:
1) Prior publications
2) Prior history of research
3) Demonstration of an ability to work independently. Could be past projects, etc.
4) Demonstration of skills related to your field. I'm not sure what skills are necessary for biologists, but if you know, you can somehow play those up.
If you really don't know what he wants, send the e-mail.
But showing a little initiative might be helpful for him to not waste more of his time.
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On December 29 2010 12:08 Zim23 wrote:Show nested quote +On December 29 2010 12:07 Random_0 wrote:On December 29 2010 10:52 ShadowDrgn wrote:On December 29 2010 10:36 Zim23 wrote:
In the future, always ask for an extra letter or two and use the first three you get. Someone is always lazy. Good advice. Also, if you ask for a letter of recommendation and get anything but an enthusiastic response, find someone else. I had the same issue when I applied for law school back in the day. I don't think this is good advice. Letters of recommendation take a *long* time to write. A good one can take 2-4 hours. And professors are busy people. If you ask a 4th professor to write you a letter, and you don't end up using it, you may have burned a bridge with an important connection. You don't tell the prof you aren't going to use it. You take that shit from 'em and they'll never ever find out.
That's not the way letters from university-level letters of recommendation work. You never actually see the letter. You only send them the contact for where the letter is going.
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On December 29 2010 12:11 Random_0 wrote:Show nested quote +On December 29 2010 12:08 Zim23 wrote:On December 29 2010 12:07 Random_0 wrote:On December 29 2010 10:52 ShadowDrgn wrote:On December 29 2010 10:36 Zim23 wrote:
In the future, always ask for an extra letter or two and use the first three you get. Someone is always lazy. Good advice. Also, if you ask for a letter of recommendation and get anything but an enthusiastic response, find someone else. I had the same issue when I applied for law school back in the day. I don't think this is good advice. Letters of recommendation take a *long* time to write. A good one can take 2-4 hours. And professors are busy people. If you ask a 4th professor to write you a letter, and you don't end up using it, you may have burned a bridge with an important connection. You don't tell the prof you aren't going to use it. You take that shit from 'em and they'll never ever find out. That's not the way letters from university-level letters of recommendation work. You never actually see the letter. You only send them the contact for where the letter is going.
The way it worked for me is they sent it to my undergrad adviser who then sent the letters out with my applications. The adviser can send the first 3 and file the extra ones. In some cases you do get them though, they seal it and you send it out.
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Profs sometimes want more info so they can make their letters seem more real and less generic. One of my profs asked me to write like a paragraph of some personal info/experiences. Oh and don't hesitate to remind the hell out of him (in a polite way). This is your future for your education so don't be shy.
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For the future, you might want to know that asking for a recommendation two weeks in advance is considered last minute. Try to ask at least a month in advance.
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On December 29 2010 17:29 Slaughter wrote:
Profs sometimes want more info so they can make their letters seem more real and less generic. One of my profs asked me to write like a paragraph of some personal info/experiences. Oh and don't hesitate to remind the hell out of him (in a polite way). This is your future for your education so don't be shy.
Yeah I'm going to send him some info about what I remember of what I did in the class/interactions with the prof.
On December 29 2010 17:43 munchmunch wrote:
For the future, you might want to know that asking for a recommendation two weeks in advance is considered last minute. Try to ask at least a month in advance.
I asked him about 6 weeks ago and he agreed. I asked for an update 2 weeks ago and thats when things turned south.
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It might be for the best if you don't even have a good memory of his class.
For PhD programs, letters of rec. are super serious business. They are even more important than your transcript, and this is not a lie.
The admissions crew (which isn't generic like it is for undergrad, it's going to be people within the actual department you are applying to) is going to want your letters to address very specific concerns, namely:
1. Can this applicant handle the initial coursework/exams of the graduate program
2. Is this applicant capable of doing original research and writing a dissertation?
3. Can this applicant TA a class or potentially run a whole lecture section?
Ideally the letter would have specific anecdotes addressing your abilities to do the 3 things listed there.
If it's just a random professor saying you did good in his course, that's not the kind of letter you want to ship with your PhD application. I honestly recommend thinking a lot harder about who you want to write your letters for you.
Hope I helped!
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EPT
