What to do with a year-old Letter of Recommendation?... Forum

[the_kidult]

I have a really great letter of recommendation lined up, except that there's a catch: I'm not applying until next year, and the professor eager to write me the letter won't be here by then. Having him write it for me now would be MUCH more convenient than having to track him down later on, but I'm worried about how a year-old letter might look to admissions officers. Any thoughts, recommendations?

[zworykin]

The adcomms will look at your year-old letter, if it's even dated, and say, "Wow, what a thoughtful person we have here, getting his letters in order early while he was still in contact with his professors." Seriously, they even recommend that you get your letters early if you know you'll be taking some time off after school. They'd much rather see the professor's thoughts about you and your abilities while he actually knows you, as opposed to after he has had a year or two to forget you and has to write a letter based only on your grade and the copies of your papers you gave him. I'm actually in that boat right now (but 3 years out from graduation, so 3-6 years since I actually had classes with these professors), and it really sucks.

TL;DR: Get the letter now. Get as many academic letters as you can now, in fact.

[billyez]

^ This guy is right.

[jtemp320]

Get the letter now - I am a couple of years out of school and am now trying to track down Professors who I worked closely with and really liked me but are MIA because of summer and may write a slightly different letter with all the students who have come between our work together. Sorry for the run-on sentence but bottom line - Get them while you can

[vsl89]

Get them while you can

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