Ask for letters now or later?

April 18, 2012 1:07 PM

PhD program letters of recommendation quandary: Ask now when I'm not sure I'll apply to a program next year but when my profs still remember me, or later when I know for sure but (possibly) a year or three have passed?

I'm just finishing up my master's degree at a top university that cranks out a lot of masters students. I am going back to my old job, which I'm kind of bummed about because I have discovered I really, really enjoy research, even the boring data cleaning bits. However, there's a very, very exciting project on the horizon at work that will keep me happily employed for the next 2-3 years if it gets approved. This project is aligned with my research interests and would likely improve my attractiveness for a PhD program (not to mention be really fulfilling to work on). If this project doesn't happen, I would like to apply to PhD programs next year so I can move into a more research-based career.

My profs are busy people, and all are well-known, highly respected people in their fields. They also have many dynamic, incredibly bright masters students, and having been a teacher myself, I know that it's possible they will forget exactly who I am after a few years. Should I ask them for letters now so they can draft them while my work is fresh in mind (should they agree to write one for me), or should I wait until I am definitely applying? Professor Mefites, what sounds most reasonable to you? Thank you!

I will only do a PhD if I can get fully funded at a top-10 school for my discipline, and yes, I know the PhD job market sucks but for the kind of research work I want to do, I need one. And I'm hoping not being married to academia/tenure-track positions will help these prospects.

posted by smirkette to Education (9 answers total)

Best answer: I don't advise students in your situation, so I won't suggest the timing, but one thing you can do right now is assemble a portfolio of your best work: excellent papers / projects you have done in each professor's class. Such things function as very good memory-joggers. Keep the file in a safe place so that you can email them to your profs along with your up-to-date CV whenever you ask for letters.
posted by BrashTech at 1:11 PM on April 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

Check that your university doesn't have some kind of letter service where professors can deposit letters of recommendation which you can, at some point in the future, request be sent (likely for a fee). Where I was an undergrad, it was a service of the career center.
posted by hoyland at 1:20 PM on April 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Get them to write the letters now (that is, this fall); it's both easier for them and better for you if they have to update the letters in a year or two than it is for them to write a new letter later on for a less-well-remembered student. And yes, if possible, have the letters banked with the campus placement center, or a portfolio service (e.g. Interfolio), so you can re-use them as needed. Try to provide as much detail as possible now about what they're going to be recommending you for (field, subfield, research area, etc.); references are usually better and more detailed when they're tailored for a specific purpose, if not a specific recipient. Still, do have them update their letters later on if you end up doing this PhD-research-related job; all your letters should talk about that!
posted by RogerB at 1:41 PM on April 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You should ask the professors themselves for their own opinions, now. They will almost certainly want to write the letters now, and will have the best advice for application strategies.

I personally find it hard to imagine thinking that I would rather write a letter for a student in three years than write it immediately. And keep in mind that you are in no way wasting their time -- writing letters is part of their job.

That said, I asked for one letter after 5 years, and the professor said that, while he hadn't remembered me by name, he remembered me quite well once I walked into his office -- and that was out of a 100 person lecture hall. If you're the kind of student for whom they will write a strong letter, they probably know you better than you guess.
posted by endless_forms at 1:45 PM on April 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

I second endless_forms advice of asking the individual Profs what they would prefer. At the very least, it gets you on their radar as someone who may want a letter at some point in the near future.

As someone who writes letters for students a lot, I would probably not write a letter now (I'm busy during the term and a procrastinator). But if I knew you were going to want letters eventually, I'd at least draft a rough outline of what I could say about you that was unique while I had a good memory of what you did.

For example:

*great project on Foo
*really shined in my class in Bar
*great in class discussions
*really great initiative working on research projects

This is, of course, much coarser (and less specific) than what I would write in my actually letter, but it's mostly just to get me to go, "Oh! That smirkette!"
posted by Betelgeuse at 2:03 PM on April 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

I would probably not write a letter now For clarity, by "now" I mean "at the end of this term", instead of "after three years".
posted by endless_forms at 2:27 PM on April 18, 2012

I agree with BrashTech. I took two years off before applying to school, but when I reconnected with my professors I was able to give them not only my old papers, but my old papers with their original comments on them. It made things a lot easer for them.
posted by duvatney at 3:02 PM on April 18, 2012

Best answer: Okay, really what you need to be doing is meeting with these professors and talking to them about your plans, your research ideas, and really letting them get to know you well.

I'm currently teaching in an MA program and I have a very hard time writing good letters for students that I didn't have as research assistants, much less ones that I didn't talk to for HOURS.

You need to be cultivating relationships with them and after a few months, say to the ones that you get on with best "Hey, I'm thinking about applying to PhD programs, what are your thoughts?"

A dirty secret of PhD programs is that a letter from a respected colleague is key to admissions committees.

So if your mentors have recommendations of programs for you, that is a good sign that they know someone and can help you climb the ladder into the program.

So then a few weeks/months later, after they recommended that you look into Whatever University, you ask them for a letter if they didn't already recommend it.

Letters that are anonymous from the campus letter service are not going to get you into a good PhD program.

(FWIW, I'm 1 for 1 in getting a promising MA research assistant into the PhD program of her choice.)
posted by k8t at 5:19 PM on April 18, 2012

Best answer: Another vote for asking now and requesting that they keep it on file/on their hard drive.

It's part of their job. No big deal. It'll take up some of their valuable time, but they take it seriously.
posted by bardic at 9:50 PM on April 18, 2012