How to Approach Letters of Recommendation

Graduate School
1

<p>I've been out of school for one year now, and am applying for fall 2010 admission to grad school, at which point I will have been out of school for two years.</p>

<p>When I was in school, I asked professors about writing me letters of recommendation, and they said it would be no problem, but that they would write them when I applied to grad school so get back to them at that point. I'm now at that point.</p>

<p>However, I'm not really sure how to approach the situation.</p>

<p>For example's sake, let's say I apply to eight schools, and need three letters per school, or twenty-four letters in total.</p>

<p>I surely can't ask three different professors to each write eight slightly tweaked/different letters since they simply don't have the time, but I also feel having them each write one general letter and sending it off to eight schools will hurt me as well since the letters won't be specific.</p>

<p>I don't have twenty-four professors to get letters from, or even twelve. I can think of maybe five or six professors who I could/would want to get letters from.</p>

<p>How do I approach this? Do I email all six professors and very very very politely ask three of them to write four letters for four schools, and three of them to write letters for the other schools? Do I just go with general letters sent to all schools?</p>

<p>Also before I ask for the letters, should I have my SOPs for each school written in case the letter writer wants to see my interests as they write the letter?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>

Except that’s exactly what you should do. It is not going to be any more inconvenience on your recommenders – having to send a slightly modified letter to each of the applicant’s schools is something professors already expect they will have to do when they are approached for LORs.</p>

<p>Instead of going with the five or six professors, just choose the 3 that you think can write the most positive and helpful letter on your behalf. You are simply complicating the situation for you and everyone else trying to split 24 letters between 5 or 6 people.</p>

<p>Also, [Letter</a> of Recommendation - FAQ](<a href=“http://gradschool.about.com/cs/askingforletters/f/recommend.htm]Letter”>How to Get a Letter of Recommendation After Graduation)</p>

3

<p>I agree with the above post. I had the same concern about LORs and I asked my professor about it, and he said that part of being a professor is writing letters for students.</p>

4

<p>Just choose three professors. Believe me, we’ve all sent around 10 letters of rec for one student before. This is quite common, and yours will not be an unexpected or unwelcome request.</p>

5

<p>I concur with professor X. One additional comment: make it easy for the profs.
provide them with a brief summary reminding them of how they know you, what you accomplished during the time period they oversaw your studies/accomplishments (this can be a brief CV) and finally a draft of your SOP.</p>