2: Asking for Letters of Recommendation

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Hi everyone, for today's episode, I'm going to be talking about asking for letters of recommendation. This is actually a dreaded dreaded thing for a lot of students, a lot of individuals who happen to find themselves applying to graduate school, to maybe 8, 10, 12 schools, and wondering who they're going to ask a letter of recommendation from, and then how.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

The first part, who do you ask for a letter of recommendation, let's say, you have had the opportunity to work with one professor, during your time in your undergraduate years, and you've developed a fairly good relationship with his one professor. But you see that in your applications are asking you for three letters of rec. And you maybe don't feel so comfortable with other professors. Maybe you didn't reach out to office hours enough? Maybe you weren't the most extroverted student in class. Maybe you know, you had such a good relationship with one professor that you didn't bother to develop relationships with others? Well, then what do you do in this case? This happens to happen to a lot of students that I've seen time and time again. And I usually recommend that they take a look at some of the courses that they have taken and see. Is there any professor that you took more than one course with? Did you perform well in those classes? If so, then that's likely a professor that you could ask for a recommendation if you took one or two courses, and got an A minus, or even a plus sometimes even a B pluses. Okay, depending on what field you're in.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

But okay, that then you have two, and you still have this third recommendation letter, who do you ask for a recommendation letter, you could take a look at the rest of your transcripts, you there was anyone else that you took in class and that you did? Well, of course, you want this to be within your major unless you're applying to Master's or PhD programs outside of your major in that case that you want a professor in that field. But if you don't have another person from your department that you took a class with, then you could also take a look at, okay, was I involved in any programs was involved in something like the McNair Scholars Program, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship, in some sort of undergraduate research program, a research experience for undergraduates program or a summer research opportunity program. If that's the case, then whoever you worked with, for that program, would be a really great recommender. Perhaps you were involved in working on a senior thesis, and maybe there was a professor that taught the methods course for the senior thesis program in your department, then that professor would be a good a person to ask. And in some cases, you may have developed a good relationship with a TA in a class. And you could also always ask the TA to write the letter and to ask the professor to sign off on that letter as well. So then there would be two signatures. So I mean, I want you to understand that there are actually multiple different ways to get a recommendation letter.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Let's say that, now that you've thought it through, you've identified three people that could potentially serve as your letter writers. Now what? Well, the next step that isn't very easy, I understand is asking for the letters. And typically, students will ask me, okay, can you help me draft an email where I can ask for a recommendation from a professor, and I tell them hold up, pull it up, hold up, hold up. Instead of asking for a letter of recommendation in an email that can be part of a flooded inbox to a professor that maybe you haven't been seeing regularly, who may or may not remember you. What I recommend instead is, if it's possible, try to set up a face to face meeting with that person to ask them because why? It's actually much harder for someone to say no to you in person than it is over email, over email, you are one of countless people, they may or may not remember what you look like. And it's really easy to either say no, or to ignore that email to delete it, etc. So, first step, can you get a hold of that person? Maybe you're not in luck, and that professor is away. They're on sabbatical.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Maybe you worked with them for a summer program, so they're not technically on your campus. Then what? Okay, the next thing would be similarly face to face. Can you set up a Skype, a Zoom, some sort of Google Hangout conversation with them. You don't necessarily need to ask for a letter in the email in your email, you can ask to request a meeting, where you can update them on what you've been up to, and let them know that this quarter or this upcoming term, this upcoming semester, you're going to be applying to graduate schools and you would love to get their insight and advice on this. And then once you see them, then you ask, okay, if if that person is not responding to your emails, then what you what do you do, this sometimes happens, see if you can get a hold of them in another way. Sometimes they have office hours, sometimes you may know a graduate student who works with them who sees them more regularly. In either way, you have to just try to find a way to reach them.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Some professors are not good over email, they're better in person, or they're not good over email, but they sometimes text faster than they are by email, or they prefer phone calls, you never know this is something for you to figure out. And you can do this by either asking them when you do see them, or asking someone that actually works closely with them. But overall, my advice is, try to ask for a letter of recommendation in person, when you ask them in person, the language that you can use is would you be able to support me, by writing me a letter of recommendation actually a strong letter of recommendation for Masters and PhD programs this year?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And then you let them know, don't worry, I will prepare a packet that includes all of the relevant information that you may need. So when you say this, you should keep in mind that once they say yes, you're going to want to get them a packet rather soon, I would say at least a month before the first deadline. And that package should include a copy of your CV or resume. The CV is the Curriculum Vita, which includes everything that you've accomplished up to this point, you'll also want a copy of the grad school lists and includes at least the names of the programs, and the deadlines. And possibly also just instructions on how they upload the letters, which will most likely be you sending them a link, once you open up your applications. CV, grad school list, then a draft of a statement of purpose and a draft of a personal statement, yes, I know this is very stressful, because you may or may not have a draft, or maybe you have something but you don't think it's quite at the level where you feel comfortable sharing it with someone. You know, that's, that's not something that you should be worried about right now, you should be worried about having a draft and let them know and maybe put it in the header that it is a draft. It's not nowhere near the final stage. But it's just so that they can have some information on you to write a strong letter.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And then aside from that, you can include copies of your transcripts or anything else that they may ask for. You never know that person might ask for a copy of an essay that you wrote in their class, or they may ask for, can you provide some more information? On just a couple of bullets on what you want me to highlight about you. And if that's the case, then you know, you let them know what your accomplishments are, maybe there are some gaps in your profile that you want them to acknowledge, maybe you didn't do so well, when you took the General Record Exam. Or maybe you had one quarter where your grades didn't, you know, go so well, because you struggled with something personal that you got through and you overcame. If that's the case, you can certainly ask them to address that in their letter, and to show that despite that, you're still a very strong candidate for grad school.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

But that's my overall advice on requesting first identifying your recommenders and requesting the actual letters from them. I know it's not an easy process. I know that it's probably one of the parts of applying to graduate school that is the most stressful for people because it feels like it's out of your controls and someone since someone is almost it's almost as if they're gatekeeping. Because if you don't get letters, then you can't apply. But if you do it step by step, take it one step at a time and try to you know, brainstorm what to do whenever you reach any roadblocks.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Soon enough, you'll get your three recommenders or more if you know you never know some some random fellowships may ask for four recommenders and every once in a while you might get a random school that might say two but typically it's it's three recommenders. If you have three, you'll be good to go for applying to graduate school, this admission cycle. I wish you the best of luck as you ask for letters of recommendation. I know it's not fun but I also know that you can get through this so go ahead and make the ask.