What to do with my LOR situation? Forum

[afnaidel]

Here's my story.

I originally planned to get two letters of recommendation from professors who taught me.
One professor, whom I took only one class with but had a friendly relationship, already wrote me one letter.
I believe it is just an average quality letter considering that she doesn't know me that well.

My second letter was supposed to come from a professor whom I took three classes with.
During my junior year, he offered me to be his research assistant, and by the end of my senior year, he told me that he considers me a friend and asked me to keep in touch, etc. Also, he is a well-regarded communication law scholar.
Basically, his letter should be quite beneficial. That is, if I did get it.

The problem is that he may not be in a condition to write me one.
In late July, I emailed him asking for an LOR. When I didn't get a reply for two weeks, I did some research and found out that he had Hepatitis B infection and was hospitalized.
So I immediately sent an email hoping that he gets well soon.
Then, in early August, I grew anxious and emailed him again asking for an LOR.

Finally, I got a reply about a week ago. But the reply was for the email that I wrote him when I learned he was hospitalized and it didn't mention an LOR at all.
So basically, I have no idea whether or not he would write me the letter despite two emails asking for it.


All other application materials are ready to be submitted and the only thing missing is one LOR.
I'm really hoping that I would be able to submit applications as soon as possible, so I'm really anxious not knowing what to do about this LOR situation.

I do know that he might not be in a condition to write me the letter, so should I give up and ask another person (who will probably write me an even worse LOR than my first one)?
Or should I continue to ask for the letter, even though it will probably annoy him?

[TLSCLB]

It can't hurt to get a back up letter of recommendation on file. If this guy does write you one, you won't need the back up, but if he doesn't, then you'll at least having something to submit.