I have two teachers in mind of who I want to ask for rec letters. How should I do this? In the email what should I say?
rule number one: when you ask people to do you a favor like this, don’t send an email. Meet face-to-face. Unless these teachers have generally announced to the class to email them if you want a rec, I think it comes across as borderline rude.
important rule people skip or don’t know about: always ask if they can write a strong letter for you or if they suggest you ask someone else. Ideally they hold as high an opinion of you as you think, but it’s not always the case. In “The Gatekeepers” which follows the admissions committee at Wesleyan for a year is a real-world example of a bad rec. Obviously when the student asked for a rec she assumed it would be positive, but here is what she got:
This could have been avoided if the teacher had been asked if they would write a strong rec. The student did not get in.