Letter of recommendation help

May 3, 2013 8:05 AM

Help me choose who to ask for a letter of recommendation: professor who knows me but hasn't really graded me on anything yet v. professor who most likely does not remember me (at least not very clearly) but gave me a couple good grades.

I have to apply for an extension for a scholarship for my graduate studies for next year. I need two letters of recommendation from professors. Got one professor from my first semester to write for me, but the other person I asked said they had a lot of other letters to write and pointed out they didn't know me too well (that prof only taught me for a half a semester, though she gave me a good grade and had filled out a shorter recommendation form for me earlier this semester). Anyway, outside of the people I have already asked I don't feel like there is an obvious choice of who to ask next. The main contenders to my mind seem to be:

1) a professor who taught me last semester and who gave me a good grade, but the class was rather large (50 people or so) so I don't know that I would have really stood out. I did have a meeting or two with him about a paper I wrote, though, and I did get positive feedback from him on a presentation I gave, and did participate in class discussions at a moderate rate.

2) a professor for a class I have this semester (smaller class, maybe 15 people) for a class that I really like. I have met with him a couple of times about assignments and made friendly conversation with me and he definitely knows who I am and that I am interested in the subject he teaches. Downside is that he has not graded me on anything yet (though I do have a big presentation to give in that class in about two weeks) and my participation rate in class discussions has not been great, partly due to the fact that I have been struggling a bit with the class being in another language (I am abroad) but also because I am a bit nervous in general about class participation.

The letter is due in a bit under a month at this point. I guess there are a couple of other professors I might approach, but most of the ones I can think of I can also think of reasons I might not want to ask them. Thoughts?

posted by thesnowyslaps to Work & Money (9 answers total)

Ask the one who knows you. Get a copy of your transcript to this person so he can comment on your good grades as well as your other sterling qualities as a student.
posted by biffa at 8:12 AM on May 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best thing to do here is just check with the professors themselves. For the professor you feel you might not know you as well, set up a meeting with him where you bring a copy of your application and any reasons statement you've had to write.

I was in a similar situation last semester, for my application to a new Ph.D. program with a statistics focus. I only had one recent professor who could speak at all to my math/statistics ability, but her class had been mostly graded by a TA and was fairly large. I asked her if she'd be willing to write a letter, but that I understood if she didn't feel she could comment well on my work. She actually suggested that the TA write a short letter, and that she could then make that part of a larger letter from her, which worked very well.

Mostly, it can't hurt to ask! I've found professors to be fairly gracious and helpful with letters of recommendation, especially when I've asked at least 3-4 weeks out. They know that it's an expected part of their job, and are happy to see good students succeed as well!
posted by augustimagination at 8:17 AM on May 3, 2013

I'd start by asking the one from last semester. If you talked in class and met with him/her. s/he probably DOES remember you. Write them an email in which you remind her of your interactions, your grade in the class, and to which you attach your old assignments. Give her an out, i.e. say something like, "I'll of course understand if you don't feel like you remember me well enough to write this letter". I think you'll find that she will do it, especially if it's just to "extend your scholarship" rather than, say, to get in to grad school.
posted by kestrel251 at 8:27 AM on May 3, 2013

I got a recommendation from a professor that I took 4 classes from. It had been about a decade, but he kept good records. This is what I remember:

"I don't remember Miss Bunny, but I see that she took 4 classes with me and that she earned A's in each class, this tells me that she not only had a good grasp of the material but that she was able to write well about it."

I got into grad school. I still kinda laugh about that.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 8:43 AM on May 3, 2013

A good letter of recommendation should have nothing to do with the grades that the recommender gave you. That information is already in your transcript. The point of a letter of recommendation is to highlight your other, harder-to-quantify good qualities — like, you know, "he gave an awesome presentation last semester" or "this semester he's good enough in his second language to participate in discussion in it."*

In other words, both of these guys could potentially write you a strong letter, and the grades they have (or haven't) given you are irrelevant. Ask both.

(And I agree with kestrel251 — offer an out. If you make "No" an option, then you raise the odds that "Yes" will mean not only "Yes I'll put some words on a piece of paper" but "Yes I'll put some effort into this and provide real details that will help your case.")

*The letter that Ruthless Bunny describes isn't like this. But the point is, that was a really bad letter of recommendation. As she says, she got into grad school anyway, but the rest of her application must have been pretty damn awesome, because a letter like that would not have helped her case at all.
posted by Now there are two. There are two _______. at 9:04 AM on May 3, 2013

Why not ask both?
posted by aryma at 5:12 PM on May 3, 2013

said they had a lot of other letters to write and pointed out they didn't know me too well

They're telling you that they're not going to be able to write a good letter for you.

Go for the other one.
posted by porpoise at 8:24 PM on May 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

There is absolutely, positively, nothing at all wrong with asking one or both of the professors directly: How do you feel about writing a letter of recommendation for me? And you should also ask this: If you write a letter, will it be a strong one? Don't feel self-conscious about this at all. Trust me, unless you're our star student, we don't think about you very often, and we also find the interaction as awkward as you do. So directness is appreciated.

Different profs have different opinions about this, but I feel like I have a duty to tell a student who asks me for a letter whether or not I feel comfortable doing so, which corresponds directly to whether or not I am going to write them a strong or a weak letter. Nobody deserves a bad letter of recommendation unless they are so terrible they can't find someone able to see them in a good light.
posted by dis_integration at 8:29 PM on May 3, 2013

Response by poster: said they had a lot of other letters to write and pointed out they didn't know me too well

They're telling you that they're not going to be able to write a good letter for you.

Go for the other one.

This line was referring to someone I already asked for a letter and as you note turned me down, which is the reason I have this dilemma. I am debating between two other professors currently.

Thanks for the advice, anyway, all. I tried the one I knew from this semester, giving him an "out" and may reach out to the other one as well if necessary. We shall see how it goes.
posted by thesnowyslaps at 2:10 AM on May 4, 2013