Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with recommendation and graduate

To prof or not to prof

mooselini — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 15:03:30 -0800

Recommendation Letters filter: grad school in MPH and no academic references? Snowflakes within. I am applying to grad school for next year in MPH and have no academic references to buttress my application. I have graduated college in Dec '08 and have since held two research assistant positions within two top-5 universities directly relating to what I want to do in my post graduate career. I have co-authored two papers that have been published in well-known journals.

My original idea is to use my PIs as references (I have 3 PIs who I worked closely with and have done research for) but upon reading further application paperwork I see that not having anyone from my college to attest to my academic abilities can hinder my chances in getting into the schools of my choice. Unfortunately, I have not worked with any professors in college and was not even on their radar during class. My undergrad concentrations were all over the place (I did double bachelors in Psych and Math, and a minor in Comp Sci).

If the hive-mind has any comments regarding this and the importance of having past profs to write recommendations, I would really appreciate it. Thank you all in advance!

How to best worship the gods that be?

Peregrin5 — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:28:00 -0800

Getting up close and personal with someone who could greatly improve my future? I've been put in this situation before.

By some rare lucky chance, I happen to work with a top mind in a field I am interested in pursuing. I literally sit 5 feet away from that current idol everyday as he or she fulfills their daily work, totally oblivious to me, though I might be the only one in the room. They tend to have personalities that are abrasive and brusque as well, so they're definitely not going to be the ones who start conversation, nor seem likely to appreciate being stuck in a conversation with a lowly student as myself.

I don't do anything to help the situation either, being an introverted student star-struck from the immense exceptional aura shimmering from my esteemed superior. So I bury my nose in my work, and do my best to be as silent as possible to not bother the higher-being sitting a mere table-width away.

Generally, though we're are in close proximity to eachother, they don't generally work directly with me, and there are 4 or 5 people in the heirarchy that are above me that mitigate the commands from the idol to myself. I just happened to land in the same geophysical area.

I know that getting into the good graces of such a person would be greatly beneficial to my future prospects of getting into the grad school program of my choice, however, attempting to begin a relationship with this in mind seems petty and shallow, and I assume my attempts will be easily seen through.

The person in question never really has the benefit of seeing the proficiency of my work or how dependable I am, because as I stated, I report to those below him or her, and while they may laud me and shower me with affection, they see no need to pass the applause higher up the ladder. They're too busy trying to impress the person in question themselves.

So I don't feel I can appeal to the person with small-talk and conversation, and I don't feel that I can woo them over with my work (which is my real strong point). The person is also extremely busy and will not be receptive to my attempts either.

Though forcing a relationship for recommendation purposes seems cheap and shallow as I stated before, I still kind of really need a letter from them. How would I go about bettering my relationship with the untouchable personages that I work with and obtain that glowing recommendation?

Yet another grad school letter of recommendation inquiry...

Asherah — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:17:39 -0800

What do you do when your connection with your immediate professors seems slim at best? I'm applying to a graduate nursing program at UCLA (MECN), and am required to submit three letters of rec. These are to be submitted on a UCLA-provided form, not narrative or free form.

I feel as if my academic pool of references is a tad bit light, as I the courses I'm taking now are mainly science pre-reqs that I didn't cover as an undergrad. This means that I'm taking one class at most with each prof, albeit I've done very well in each. I'm afraid that I don't have a deep enough connection with my current profs to legitimately ask for a rec.

A bio prof who I've taken Honors Anatomy with over the summer (4 hours a day, 5 days a week, x 6 weeks, intimate class size) made an offhand remark about how he would complete letters of rec for those individuals who proved their worth in his class and demonstrated their effort. Now its coming to the day where it looks like he will be my best prospect, and I'm clueless as to what to say specifically.

What do you do when your connection with your immediate professors seems slim at best? I know I may be reaching here, and I know the worst case scenario is that he just declines to do it as it is outside of his comfort zone, but are there any tips for this situation.

Note: My B.A. in Psych was completed in 2004, so I don't have much communication with my previous professors up there, nor do they have any idea of my current grad plans.

What should I do?

milarepa — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 07:20:59 -0800

How do I go about asking for a letter of recommendation in this situation? I received my undergraduate degree in the summer of 2004. At that time, I could not pursue graduate school.

My life is changing considerably and it looks likely that I will apply to a couple schools next year, or the year after.

I am confident that I have 2 very good recommendations, but am hunting for the third.

During my last semester of college, I did an "independent" research project with a professor. I basically took data that she had, analyzed it for her, and wrote a 7-8 page paper, including abstract, etc. I received an A.

Unfortunately, she's a bit hard to read (and it's not just me), and a little austere. In short, she scares me a little.

I worked in her lab, cared for her animals, attended the lab meetings, wrote a pretty good paper, and I think she liked me...she's also relatively well known in the field I want to pursue. In some ways she would make a perfect letter of recommendation. But I only worked with her for one semester and I haven't talked to her in over two years.

1. Is it okay to ask for a letter of recommendation in this position?

2. How should I go about it? Drop by the lab? Email her? Try to catch her on the phone. I assume email is best, but what do I say?

3. Even if I don't apply for grad school now, I think it is wise to reconnect with her now before too much more time passes. Am I right?

4. Any general advice?

Thanks...

How to write a reference letter?

445supermag — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 14:11:30 -0800

I have been asked to write recommendation letters for an undergrad who is applying to grad schools. Should I just automatically use a separate sheet, or should I use their form if they provide a lot of space? Any general tips for the structure of the letter? I'm only a post-doc, so this is my first time writing a letter of reference. One of the schools wanted 4 letters, so I agreed to write one for her (and once I've written one, we figured that I might as well send one to all the schools). She was under my direct supervision in the lab for about a year, so while I can't say much about her academic work, I do know about her research qualifications (she made 10-15 peptides by solid phase fmoc synthesis, then went on to use mol. bio. techniques to express 2 different full length proteins, in both cases doing all the steps including purification and characteriazation). Am I doing her a favor with the schools that only asked for 3 letters? Any guides or examples on the web?

Media Studies Programs

Gucky — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 13:51:00 -0800

RetreatingIntoAcademia filter: I've decided to go back to school to study and teach Media Studies. Except I have no idea how to find the perfect school/program for me. Suggestions? [mi] I've already got two degrees -- a BS in Advertising (Communications) and an MFA in Advertising Design -- copywriting concentration. In addition to working a marketing job as a writer (heavy strategy, linguistics and analysis), I've been teaching grad school at night.

I enjoy teaching grad students far more than anything else I'm doing. The things I seem to excel at and enjoy are analyzing cultural context and meaning.

I don't want to go back for a PhD in advertising, as I want to take a broader perspective -- all media or mass media. And I don't want to study industry or production -- I've had enough of that from the inside.

I’ve got some school rankings and googled “media studies” and “phd”, but there seems to be almost no way to find the kind of degree I want to get.

I'll take recommendations of:
* Other majors besides Media Studies that will accomplish the same sort of program (Humanities? Mass Communications? Semiotics?)
* Ways to find a school like this (most search sites are geared to undergrad and media studies doesn't seem to be very prevalent as a PhD level
* Schools that I might want to look into
* What I should keep in mind going back to school after working for 5+ years
* People calling me crazy

My dream school has:
* A PhD program that doesn’t make me get an MA along the way, although I realize I’ll have to do lots of MA-level work
* Strong TA/funding so I get to teach right away and don’t add to my student loans
* Urban setting, because I’ve done the cornfield thing and I’m not down with that