Applying to engineering grad schools and recommendation letters

My school is so large that even in upper level classes it’s hard to get personal with teachers unlss you do researches with them.

That being said, I am currently working with two professors, whom I believe will write good letters for me. However, I am still struggling to find the last person; the only professor that know more about me than other professors is my Organic chemistry 2 teacher, but it’s been about 2 years since I had him.

Do you think it 's a bad idea to get letter from him because it’s been quite a while?

It’s pretty common for professors to write letters of recommendation for students who did well in their classes, even if it was a while ago. Your organic chemistry professor has almost certainly written rec letters for students in your situation before, and 2 years really isn’t that long in this context.

It’s funny you should post this… When I applied to mechanical engineering graduate programs, I also asked my organic chemistry professor for a rec letter (I’d been a science major as an undergrad, not an engineering major, so all my letters came from science professors rather than engineering professors). This was some 5 years after I’d taken his class. I had some not insignificant interaction with him outside of class, but still, it’d been years since I’d spoken to him. He was more than happy to write me a letter of recommendation.

Anyway, the point is you can definitely ask him whether or not he’d be willing to write you a letter of recommendation. From what I’ve seen, it’s not uncommon for students to get rec letters from professors they had years ago, and it isn’t necessarily a bad idea.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I am applying to several grad schools soon and in our school even in 300-400 level there are 40+ students in just one section, so unless you are stellar and/or go to office hour every time(which I don’t) it’s hard to leave impression .