<p>Its awkward but I've never asked for a rec from a professor before. I've asked my advisor and PI but those are people who are expected to write you recs. The professor I have in mind taught a medium sized class (~60 people) and I went to his office hours about 4 times to ask him questions about the material but we talked about his research too. </p>
<p>He's not a rec I absolutely need since next semester I will probably be able to get two science recs too but I though it might be a good idea to have a back up just in case something happens.</p>
<p>So basically whats the best way to approach a professor and ask for a rec? Email, in person? Do I just ask straight out or make small talk? Any advice would be much appreciated.</p>
<p>Older son (not pre-med) just went thru this task for grad school. He was tremendously nervous about it (even though he has a 4.0). Finally, he wrote each prof an email with the request, attached a resume, and offered to meet with each to discuss if necessary. In the body of the email, son mentioned which class he had with each prof and his grade (just in case the prof had forgotten).</p>
<p>All the profs quickly responded with “yes” and a couple did request a meeting to discuss …more to find out grad school plans and to give advice. </p>
<p>If you see a prof all the time, you can easily ask in person. </p>
<p>Others might have better suggestions.</p>
<p>mom2 makes a good suggestion. I like the idea about email followed by meeting–should cover all your bases. And you should definitely give them your med school CV and your personal statement (or draft) too!</p>
<p>Did you guys ever talk about medical school? </p>
<p>If so, you might remind him that you’re applying, mention that you need a recommendation letter, and that you think he could write you a strong one. At this point, he’ll either agree that he could and offer to write one, or he might falter if he doesn’t think he knows you well enough. If he falters, you might elaborate a little…“I think you could write me a strong one because I did well in your class, I think I contributed well, and … blah blah” (whatever’s relevant to you). </p>
<p>If this is a science prof, I guarantee you he’s written a med school rec letter before, and if he knows you’re applying, then he probably won’t be caught off guard–maybe knowing that will help your anxiety. It’s a great idea to ask him soon because he probably won’t be swamped with letter requests yet, plus he can either write it soon (get it “over with”) or write it later (giving him more time to get to know you).</p>
<p>I’m interested in what you mean by </p>
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<p>I would personally be concerned about the strength of these letters–which ideally, would be quite strong–if you’re not 100% sure you could get them (thus necessitating a back up), and they’re (presumably) from a prof you only knew for a semester. If that’s the case, I’d make a pretty major effort to get to know those two profs on a personal level so they can write about you on more than academics–and getting to know them can definitely happen in a semester! Good luck!</p>
<p>My DD was advised to ask the prof’s if they could write a STRONG letter, if it is not strong, it won’t help</p>
<p>Do y’all think that some profs have “boilerplate” recs? I mean…these people often have to write a ton of recs and maybe for strong students they have some standard stuff that they say. </p>
<p>If so, I can see them adding a more personal sentence here or there if they know something in particular that can be added, but I can’t help but think that there must be some standard sentences that certain profs probably include in their recs.</p>
<p>I really do think there are some profs who have fill in the blank recs. There will be good rec writers and bad rec writers and I can name some profs who have a reputation. I have a feeling those bad rec writers are the ones who write generic recs whereas the good rec writers actually take the time to get to know you and then write a rec based on who you are, not just your grade in the class.</p>
<p>I would imagine those boilerplate recs exist, but I didn’t really think about it when I went around asking for rec letters. Then again, I’ve always been the type of kid to get to know professors really well (getting to know brilliant minds might be my fave (academic) part of being a college student), and it actually happened that each of my letter writers offered to write for me before I could even ask them! It was really flattering.</p>
<p>ChemFreak, my advice to you is to try to only get letters from profs who won’t write you a boilerplate rec. You want your letters to absolutely shine, and that’s probably not going to happen with a generic letter. It’s cool to talk about research with profs, especially if you’re interested in their research, but don’t be afraid to talk about you too. Polite conversation dictates that at some point they’ll ask you “what’s up?” or “what’s new?” or “what have you been doing lately?” in which case you should feel free to mention some cool accomplishment (getting an A on one of their colleague’s notoriously difficult test), a new volunteer position, or just something fun and random that you do. It took me a little while to realize that professors are people too, and once you get past that, it’s pretty great to get to know them!</p>
<p>Good luck with your letters!</p>