<p>If a professor who knows me very well is leaving my university, but I still have several years before I apply to grad school, do I ask him to write the letter of recommendation now while he still knows me well, or wait till I actually apply? If I ask him to write the letter now, I obviously don't have a personal statement ready to give him or a firm sub-field I want to enter (either classical philology or greek history within a classics department). Or should I wait a year and a half and risk him forgetting details about me? </p>
<p>Or, a third option: is this guy just not going to be a good letter or rec. writer because of the situation? I took 4 classes with the guy and did rather well... it would be a shame to waste it...</p>
<p>Before he leaves, ask if you may contact him later for LORs. Do not ask for one now. It would do you no good whatsoever.</p>
<p>When the time comes to apply, contact him, ask him again if he would be willing to write. If he responds in the affirmative, then provide him with a current resume and writing sample (and preferably, one of the statements of purpose you wrote for a graduate program).</p>
<p>Why don't you ask the professor all these questions, starting with "would you be willing to write a rec letter on my behalf?" and then taking it from there.</p>
<p>The university I attended for undergrad has a "letter of recommendation file service" for people in your situation--check if your career center also has one. These are especially good for professional programs and medical schools though, a PHD program may be more of an issue with because you will want one very specific to your program. They hold the letters for you (ensuring they are confidential, etc) and send them out to the schools you apply to when you request it. </p>
<p>I used it for my masters letters, as I asked a high level individual in state govt. to write one for me, and it would have been virtually impossible to get one done for every specific program I applied to (time constraints). The same thing happened with a professor--he needed to write the letter in the spring before I solidified the schools I wanted to apply to. In both cases the letters were sent signed and sealed to the career center, which constituted a confidential letter. I had no issues with admissions at all. </p>
<p>As I said though, for a PHD this is likely /not/ a good idea...but if you look into masters programs it's likely less of a problem.</p>
<p>Give him notice now and ask if hes willing to give you his contact information for it. </p>
<p>I only took one class with a prof directly related to my post-bac plans. I used him as a reference to get a job and then 1.5yrs later contacted him again for grad school reccs. I just told him my situation and asked him to write a letter, he said yes, and then I emailed him my CV, personal statement, as well as a description of what I was currently working on. Since we had not communicated in a long time, I wanted to show him my competence by giving this interview type spiel.</p>