I am a freshman in college looking to transfer. I am in the process of getting letters of recommendation from my professors, and for the most part it is going really well. Most of my professors have been really friendly about writing letters of recommendation, but one was not. When I asked him for a letter he said he would have to think about writing me a letter because he didn’t want to loose one of the best students in his class ( I am majoring in his field, so I would be in a good number of his classes). Aside from being flattered, I felt like this was pretty unprofessional. I am paying 5 figures every year in order to get an education, not to bring my professors’ class GPAs up. Also, the school I am applying to is an Ivy so it is a long shot to say the least, meaning he should be pretty confident I will be in his class either way.
Is this a common issue? It seems to me to be very unprofessional and just kind of messed up. Am I crazy?
That was my thought I first. He could have been joking, but he agreed to write me a letter for an REU over the summer and mentioned the “I would have to think about it” for a transfer letter two or three times. He is also a pretty serious guy who I haven’t seen joke like that before, so I am pretty sure he is serious. I do have other letters, but as a freshman I only have a limited number of professors I know well. I would like to have more than one letter from a professor in my major.
Well worse case scenario you could ask another professor but that does seem unprofessional. Although its the professors choice to write a LoR his reason seems pretty flawed.
I would ask the professor again and then be sure you get a clear answer from him this time. Tell him the deadline is approaching and that you would like to know, otherwise you will ask another professor. If he says no, thank him for his time and do ask another professor that you have
Ask the professor again, saying that you’re just making sure. If you get another no, however mild, don’t press it. There are certain traditions and codes in academia, and this is one of the most opaque: You (almost) never directly turn down a request for a recommendation letter; if you don’t wish to write it, you deflect the request.
I’ve never quite understood it (and I say this as one who participates in it), but that’s the way it works. If you press the issue he may well end up writing one for you, but it likely won’t be as good as it needs to be.
^ Agreed with the above. And if I were the one doing the application, I would rather have a professor enthusiastically write the recommendation and have it be a strong recommendation rather than have it be a mediocre recommendation even if it was from my desired major. If there is another teacher that you think would write you a strong recommendation, I would ask them. Personally I believe that showing that you have different skills and having another teacher from a different discipline write about you could actually turn out to be in your benefit