Panicking over LORs

mcglz_64

So I was stupid (yes) and emailed a recommender pretty late in the game (as in, I emailed him this week).

Right now I have
-1 academic ref.
-1 professional ref.
-1 supplementary ref. (helped me with a HS project which required a mentor, kept in touch)

I graduated in 2014 so I feel like deans will expect that I have at least one more academic reference. I had someone in mind but found out something about their personal life that about a week or two ago that made me decide not to ask them for a letter. So I thought about who else to ask, and finally thought of my other professor, "Jack", since he wrote me a letter for studying abroad my senior year.

Anyway, I know it's Christmas but I emailed "Professor Jack" on Monday and have not heard back yet. School is out and the grading week just ended a day ago.

What should I do? Following up right now seems unnecessary/rude but I'm panicking. I plan to submit apps mid-January. I gave Prof. Jack the deadline of Jan. 15.

I have another professor "Prof. Mark" who wrote me a letter my senior year that he noted I could use for "future use" but it was not terribly exciting and I would still need to ask him to update it. Not even sure how to ask him for that but I suppose it could be an option?

Alex

@mcglz_64 said:
So I was stupid (yes) and emailed a recommender pretty late in the game (as in, I emailed him this week).

Right now I have
-1 academic ref.
-1 professional ref.
-1 supplementary ref. (helped me with a HS project which required a mentor, kept in touch)

I graduated in 2014 so I feel like deans will expect that I have at least one more academic reference. I had someone in mind but found out something about their personal life that about a week or two ago that made me decide not to ask them for a letter. So I thought about who else to ask, and finally thought of my other professor, "Jack", since he wrote me a letter for studying abroad my senior year.

Anyway, I know it's Christmas but I emailed "Professor Jack" on Monday and have not heard back yet. School is out and the grading week just ended a day ago.

What should I do? Following up right now seems unnecessary/rude but I'm panicking. I plan to submit apps mid-January. I gave Prof. Jack the deadline of Jan. 15.

I have another professor "Prof. Mark" who wrote me a letter my senior year that he noted I could use for "future use" but it was not terribly exciting and I would still need to ask him to update it. Not even sure how to ask him for that but I suppose it could be an option?

Honestly, profs check their emails as little as possible over breaks. So he may very well not get back to you for a bit. Also, even if you reach out to prof "Mark" if he is one break also, he may not answer back for a bit either. But right now, that may not be a bad idea.

Either way, I don't recommend following up with prof "Jack" if it's only been a few days.

Submitting apps in mid-January is already a bit on the late side, so even if the LORs take another week after that to get in, it won't be the end of the world.

Don't panic though! Worse case scenario, you have a couple of usable LORs.