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I have one LOR that I still need from a professor, who happily agreed to write one for me in May. I've sent him 4 reminders in the past 1.5 months, and he has yet to respond. I would visit in person, but I'm several states away. What should I do? Is this a common occurrence? Is it too late to ask for a letter from someone else? I feel like I'm kind of screwed if I can't get one from him because I don't really have any other professors who know me well.

Do you know anyone still at the university who knows him? Another student? Not someone totally random. Was in a similar situation and a friend who took the same course with me stopped by to see said professor and he got the letter out the next week. Otherwise ask someone now anyway to write one

Can you can call the dept. office and make sure he hasn't moved/died/etc. and make sure you have the best contact info for him?

hillz wrote:Can you can call the dept. office and make sure he hasn't moved/died/etc. and make sure you have the best contact info for him?

He's definitely teaching this semester, but I might have to call the dept. office and leave a message for him. I've tried calling him in his office, but someone else picked up and said I had the wrong number.

YeezusPiece wrote:

hillz wrote:Can you can call the dept. office and make sure he hasn't moved/died/etc. and make sure you have the best contact info for him?

He's definitely teaching this semester, but I might have to call the dept. office and leave a message for him. I've tried calling him in his office, but someone else picked up and said I had the wrong number.

Def try that. Is there anyone else who might be able to write a letter if you meet with them? I'd try to contact someone asap because it isn't too late.

hillz wrote:

YeezusPiece wrote:

hillz wrote:Can you can call the dept. office and make sure he hasn't moved/died/etc. and make sure you have the best contact info for him?

He's definitely teaching this semester, but I might have to call the dept. office and leave a message for him. I've tried calling him in his office, but someone else picked up and said I had the wrong number.

Def try that. Is there anyone else who might be able to write a letter if you meet with them? I'd try to contact someone asap because it isn't too late.

It's a long shot, but I have a couple professors who I only took 1 class with and got A/A-. It sucks that I can't meet with them since I went to school in Illinois and currently live in Georgia.

YeezusPiece wrote:

hillz wrote:

YeezusPiece wrote:

hillz wrote:Can you can call the dept. office and make sure he hasn't moved/died/etc. and make sure you have the best contact info for him?

He's definitely teaching this semester, but I might have to call the dept. office and leave a message for him. I've tried calling him in his office, but someone else picked up and said I had the wrong number.

Def try that. Is there anyone else who might be able to write a letter if you meet with them? I'd try to contact someone asap because it isn't too late.

It's a long shot, but I have a couple professors who I only took 1 class with and got A/A-. It sucks that I can't meet with them since I went to school in Illinois and currently live in Georgia.

Send them all relevant info (resume, transcript, why you want to go to law school etc.) and then tell them that you would be happy to talk on the phone if they want to talk further. Usually if a student is super polite, I think the prof is more willing to help. Just don't rush them and I bet one of the two will write you one.

It's probably a bad idea to tell them that I'm asking because one of my recommenders is being flaky, right?

YeezusPiece wrote:It's probably a bad idea to tell them that I'm asking because one of my recommenders is being flaky, right?

Hmm. I probably wouldn't and would just act like everything is normal. I had a similar situation happen with one of my profs who I didn't know quite as well and she ended up being super nice about it, even though I had been scared to ask her.

just relax. everything will go ok.

Definitely pursue a backup letter now just incase this guy completely flakes.
Even a generic one will be good because you can finally hit submit (and because LOR's are way more trouble than they actually matter).

So I found a potential backup recommender today. The thing is, I had her 3 years ago in an online course. She said she remembered me (surprisingly) and that she'll do her best if asked, but she can't really talk about my character or personality. This type of LOR won't really hurt my application too much, right? Hopefully my first recommender gets back to me so this won't be an issue, but there's a real possibility this becomes my 2nd LOR.

YeezusPiece wrote:So I found a potential backup recommender today. The thing is, I had her 3 years ago in an online course. She said she remembered me (surprisingly) and that she'll do her best if asked, but she can't really talk about my character or personality. This type of LOR won't really hurt my application too much, right? Hopefully my first recommender gets back to me so this won't be an issue, but there's a real possibility this becomes my 2nd LOR.

No. Get her to write it. Generic is better than nothing.