<p>I am applying for an internship this summer and my one dilema is that I need a letter of recommendation for a teacher. I am a freshman mechanical engineering major and I would need a letter from an instructor who taught a course in my major. Since I have only completed one semester I would only have two possible courses to choose from, calc 2 and chem. </p>
<p>I am kind of apprehensive about asking either of those professors to write a letter for me because they didn't know me very well. I am more inclined to ask my chem teacher from last semester to write me a letter because I got an A in the class. The only down side is that she didn't know me very well since it was a 90 person class, so I am not quite sure whether it would be appropriate to ask her for a letter because of this. What would you guys recommend I do.</p>
<p>Also, what is an appropriate amount of time to give a professor to write a letter of recommendation.</p>
<p>Give your professor at least two weeks to write a letter.</p>
<p>I would go with the class that had fewer people, provided you talked at some point during it. I mean, it is possible to shine in a class of 90 people, but you should have gone to office hours or participated in lecture (if possible) to get a letter of rec there. It’s better to get a letter from a professor of a class of 20 people where you got a B, but at least s/he saw you spoke up at some point.</p>
<p>If a professor doesn’t know you well, they might ask you a few questions to help them write a recommendation letter. If they’ve taught a lot of large classes in the past, it’s likely that they’ve run into this issue before and have a way to provide a personal recommendation.</p>
<p>^ I agree. If you had done well in the class I’m sure she’d ask you questions to help write a recommendation for you. Some professors know that some students have situations like that when it comes to recommendation letters so they are more lenient to you guys. Also, some professors may just do it for you because of their personality.</p>
<p>The deadline for the internship I want to apply for is in a week (i just found out about it), would it still be appropriate to ask my teacher given the short deadline or should I just forget about it?</p>
<p>The best thing to do would be to ask personally if they could do it. The worst that they could say is no. My son has asked for recommendations on short notice before and he got his recommendations. It’s courtesy, though, to provide sufficient time. Professors are typically busy around the beginning of the semester.</p>
<p>There are a lot of internships with deadlines of February 1, 2010. There are those with later deadlines too and applying for the later ones may be an option for you.</p>