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I swear recommenders ghosting you is a necessary part of the application process.
Anyway, back in early March, I reached out to three professors (I graduated 2023) to see if they'd be willing to write for me, and all of them said yes. 2/3 have completed the letters, but one of them still hasn't, despite me asking for it to be completed by the end of April. When they said they would do it, they asked for extra materials like a rough personal statement, which I provided. No response, which is fine. Since then, I have emailed them a reminder with a resent LSAC link (another recommender wanted a reminder, so I sent them to any remaining recommenders), and no response. At this point, I'm not sure what to do. This recommender enthusiastically said they would write for me and very clearly remembered me, but I've gotten zilch. I know the end of their semester was a lot, which is why when I emailed them and said end of April, I included this acknowledgement and that if they had another target date in mind to please let me know.
What are some recommended steps? I'm not sure how active this person is on their email during the summer. Should I tweak my resume and send it as a "hey, here is an updated document to better help you" or something like that?
I plan on sending my apps in September/right when I get my August LSAT back, so waiting for their fall semester to start seems less than ideal. Should I just reach out to a former employer instead? (I'm SE now and work under an NDA, so I can't ask someone in my current position).
It seems like ghosting recommenders are part of the process, and I would love some advice for how to move forward. I've never really needed to ask for a letter of rec before, so someone ghosting me is all new, and I'm a first gen so I don't have anyone I can really ask.
Anyway, in early March, I reached out to three profs (graduated 2 years ago) to see if they'd be willing to write for me. They all enthusiastically said yes, and 2/3 have written their letters (yay!). But another has completely ghosted me. I had asked for it to be completed by the end of April and if that was a problem for them to please let me know what their target date could be, and that hasn't happened. When they agreed, they asked for a resume and a rough personal statement, so I sent them that and got no response. No sweat. As it neared my given deadline, I sent them a reminder, again including that if they need a different date to let me know because I completely understand how busy the time can be. Again, absolutely no response. I am taking the August LSAT and planning on submitting my apps when I get that score back, so I would be wary on waiting for their fall semester to start up since that would be when I am already submitting them and would be an ASAP request, which likely wouldn't help me.
I'm nervous about sending another reminder because I don't want to make them upset. Should I tweak my resume (I could add more work history since I have a bit of experience), then send it with the idea of "I updated some of my materials and think they may help you as you write"? Or, should I just throw in the towel and ask a former employer instead? My worry with the former employer is that they may use ChatGPT for it, and I'm not sure if admissions would frown upon me for that. Again, first gen, so I just have no clue. Thank you for any help!
Comments
hey, do not give up, maybe see if your uni have any upcoming events you can pop in for, if your prof are there just drop by and say hi and check in. It could be like you said exam sessions and they might've got request from other students as well. or their system might be down. I think you have time, your profs are used to writing applications maybe they think they got time.