What to do when a professor agrees to write a recommendation letter but doesn’t?

Question

I’m applying to grad school and two weeks ago I asked three people for recommendation letters, two from employers and one from the professor. There’s no specific deadline, but I’m hoping to get accepted quickly in order to be eligible to start classes in the fall. Now, my entire application is complete, except for the one recommendation from my professor. I sent a follow-up email, to which she said that she’ll complete it in the next two days, which was great. But it’s now been a week since that email, and nothing’s been submitted. I sent an email responding to that saying thank you and offering more info if necessary, and have not heard anything back. What should I do? Should I wait, email her again, or ask someone else? I have some other people I can ask, but the problem is that I have no way of accessing the link as the university sends out the link with the application. I don’t mind waiting at all, but my concern is that if the professor decided to back out of it and I have to ask someone else, I want to give the new person as much time as possible by sending them info now. Help?

Answer 1

Ask someone else now. Provide a specific date, e.g. June 10, by which you need the reference and explain why. You can almost certainly add another referee to your application. If, for whatever reason, you cannot add another referee, cancel the one that's outstanding as soon as another professor has agreed.

If you can add a referee without canceling one, write to the professor who has already agreed and give her a deadline, also explaining why. (NB: Professors are necessarily pretty good about meeting deadlines, and often abysmal at those things that do not have deadlines. This from extensive research on a sample of one, namely Yours Truly.)

Answer 2

Is it possible to talk to her in person or by phone? Personal contact is better than "nagging" e-mails. Further, this will give you the opportunity to stress how urgent and stressful this is for you, and will allow you to gauge her reaction and maybe you can better assess if she will come through or if she is looking for an escape.

If this is not possible, then I think you should you should write to her with something like this:

Dear Professor, Sorry to pester you, I know you are busy, but I need to ask for an estimate on this letter of recommendation. Do you think you'll be able to submit it by [Tuesday]? If not, or if I don't hear from you, I'll have to look for another recommender. Regards, --Name

And then on [Tuesday] you reply to your own mail with the below (or you can jump straight to this, up to you)

Following up on this. I appreciate your stated willingness to write a letter of recommendation, but given that you have not been able to do so after several reminders, I think it would be best if I found another recommender. Thanks anyway. Regards, --Name

Of course, you might want to make sure you have another recommender lined up before you wave off this professor.