How Often Should You Keep In Touch with the Recommender?

[CILover]

I asked one of my graduate professors to write a LOR in June for law school. I called him and we talked for a while about it. It's been more than a couple of weeks since I heard from him. Should I call him again? Or e-mail him to see what's going on?

[n/a]

I email mine every couple weeks to give them an update to what Im up to and to remind them and encourage them to contact me if they have any questions or need more information.

I may be way off base here, but this doesnt seem too intrusive or annoying, so Ill probably stick with it

[dusya4]

I would say it depends on what expectations you set to begin with. If the prof said that he/she will be done with the letter by end of July, I wouldn't bother contacting him/her until the first week of August. That's just my opinion though, and based on my previous experience when applying to grad school I think it works pretty well this way.

[LittleGirl]

I have a prof who said she would write a LOR, but since she was so busy during the semester, she said she would rather wait until the summer. So once finals were over, I met with her and we discussed the LOR and why I wanted to go to law school and what I've been doing thus far and bla bla bla. She still said she'd be happy to do it and to let her know all the information and she'd get to it once she was done turning semester grades in. So I did all that the last week of June, and now it's mid-July, and our grades have been out for weeks, and I haven't heard a reply or any word what so ever back from her - not even a "hey, I got the email you sent, I'll still write the letter." Should I email again? Should I wait longer? Am I just being paranoid?

[queencruella]

I had a recommender that went totally AWOL on me for several months. I tried emailing her several times (she was never in her office, so calling wasn't practical) and she didn't respond until she sent in the recommendation in 2.5 months after the time I told her I'd like it to be finished. I ended up having to get another recommendation in the meantime.

[LittleGirl]

hmmmm.....so maybe I should start looking elsewhere...     

[queencruella]

I gave my recommender about 6 weeks after my meeting with her to give me some response and then set up a replacement. I'd say give her a minimum of a month just in case she's taking some time off before you start planning for a substitute.