Submit with 1 LOR before Thanksgiving or 2 before Dec 1-7? Forum

[Mal Reynolds]

Hey guys I have a quick question for you. One of my professors absolutely screwed me concerning LORs. I contacted my professor well in advance and they said everything would get turned in on time etc. etc. But they haven't responded to my emails in over three weeks. So I have another good LOR on the way but it probably won't be processed until first week of December. So my question is this: should I submit before Thanksgiving with my one LOR to the schools who will allow it? My targets are CCN, MVP and the rest of the top fourteen. I have a 170/3.9+

Will one extra week make much of a difference for my apps? Will only one letter not look as good? I am curious what you guys would do. Thanks a lot.

[danielhay11]

Most schools won't even look at your application until you have submitted two LORs.

[Mal Reynolds]

Yeah I understand that. That's why I was curious about the schools not in the most category. I know Michigan and I think Georgetown allow only one letter. So I'm curious to see if anyone has thoughts about the relative trade off of submitting before thanksgiving with one or waiting until the first week of December with two. And they're both pretty strong if that matters.

[094320]

..

[Mal Reynolds]

Cool thanks for the input. It seems like the prudent thing would be to submit then send in my second letter before I go complete. Thanks again.

[maxpower430]

really similar thing happened to me (just bump up the timeline like two weeks), i think you can assign a letter that hasn't been processed to get around the two letter requirement. that said, i don't know what schools do with apps that only have a letter (i.e. set them aside until the 2nd letter is received/added to your file vs. giving you a spot in the queue as across the lake suggested), you're probably better off just calling the schools and seeing what the policies are. also a side note, if you're not having the prof fax it, you really should. it should be processed within a few hours that way (LSAC lost my first fax and has done the same for others), and it's a lot easier to re-fax than to resend. good luck, seriously nothing more annoying than a prof who agrees to write a letter and then just cuts off all contact, but such is life i guess.