<p>Now is the time of the year to apply for summer internship, research positions and my case grad school (I am one semester early). I have a few questions. </p>
<li> Who do I ask for rec letter, I know that I am suppose to ask professors who know me well, and did well in their classes. What about classes that I did well, but the prof who don’T know who I am.</li>
<li> If a professor agree to do a rec letter, should I schedule an appointment first with him/her to talk in more details?</li>
<li> How early should I ask a professor to do a rec letter before a due date, 2 weeks in advance, 3 weeks, or 1 month?</li>
<li> Is it a common custom to prepare a small gift for you’re your professors who write you a letter? </li>
<li> How many rec letters can I ask, since I am going to apply as many internship positions as possible? How many is too many? And should I get the letters from profs send out the letters myself or have profs send them. </li>
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<li><p>Should know you better than a grade in a course. A professor is probably going to forget who you are after the semester is over if all you did was turn in assignments and take exams, even if you got an A. Maybe if you were the top score in the class, but usually, it's better to get a professor who will remember your name after a semester. :)</p></li>
<li><p>You don't necessarily have to talk with him/her, unless you want to describe to him what the letters are for. Depending on how you usually interact, asking during office hours or emailing them could be appropriate.</p></li>
<li><p>I would say a month is appropriate, though I'm kind of being hypocritical, as I have letters of rec due in less than a month that I still have to ask for. If less than a month, ask within a week or two of knowing you need one - probably will be more sympathetic if you told them as soon as you found out you needed it.</p></li>
<li><p>I wouldn't really prepare a gift since it might be a conflict of interest, and put the professor in the difficult position of having to turn down something. If you really want to, avoid until after you've been accepted/offered/etc whatever, and after you're done taking courses from that professor. Also, keep it small - the more money you spend, the more likely the professor is going to feel uncomfortable taking it!</p></li>
<li><p>Depends on how comfortable you are with the professor, I guess. Also depends on how long the letters need to be and how different from each other. One professor I know did sixty (60!!) for one graduating PhD student. I would not ask that much, personally :)</p></li>
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<p>As for how to collect them, refer to the instructions for wherever you're applying. The professor may be required (or wish to him/herself) place them in official university stationary envelopes, otherwise, it's only polite to give them pre-addressed and stamped envelopes.</p>
<p>a. You should know who the rec letter is going to, as requirements (what the prof. will say in it) and even the tone of the letter will be different. My opinion is this is very important! The actual letter will be addressed to the specifi company, committee, etc. The less generic the letter, the better.</p>
<p>b. A month is a good time frame if possible, and if they don't have it to you 5 days or so before it needs to be mailed, then nicely ask the status. If you have a really long time frame, tell them you need it a week before you actually do. Professors tend to forget and be busy!</p>
<p>c. Ask professors that know you, your work ethics, etc. They don't even have to be a professor--your advisor, boss at a part time job, etc, are good choices as well. The grade in their class doesn't really matter, as long as they would know you did your best. (attended class, turned everything in, showed interest)</p>
<p>d. If they would know you by name, then you could e-mail them to ask. If not, then go to their office hours.</p>
<p>e. I wouldn't give them a gift, but a written thank you note after the fact (within a week of mailing) is nice.</p>
<p>f. You can ask the professors if they would like to mail it themselves, and you can provide them with a stamped/addressed envelope, or if you should pick it up to include in the packet. Most will have a preferance as they write a lot--some like you to actually read it over before the final copy is done, some give it to you in a sealed envelope signed over the top, and some mail it on their own.</p>
<p>I'm a freshman. but lookin @ those comments, I feel like I should start to know or maybe interact more w/ my profs.
especially Physics and Cal Profs.
maybe even Econ.</p>
<p>what do you guys think of getting recommendation letters from graduate lab assistants? A couple of my applications require letters from people who know my lab skills and potential. Professors don't watch over us in labs. TA's do. So, if the letter doesn't specify that it has to be completed by a faculty member, would a TA be ok? (It does ask for the title of the recommender, though.)</p>
<p>I have the same issue, probably along with the thousands of other engineering freshmen. What I did instend was ask the TA to send info to the professor, then I sent my resume/other info to my professor, and he was able to write a really good recommendation. I would say that this is the best way, because some schools/companies don't put too much regard into TA recs.</p>
<p>I have a question though for this post: Is it sufficient to ask for a rec from a teacher that although you may not have gone to their office hours many times (or ever in my case) but still did well (B) in their class? Im trying to transfer and I'm trying to limit my high school recs to a calc teacher/guidence counseler, but i'm having a hard time filling the last rec spot for college prof. The teacher already wrote me a rec for a job position in the Math Dept that is highly sought after by upperclassmen, and I was one of two freshmen to get the spot, so the teacher's initial rec must have been good. Would it be okay to ask her for a rec, when there wasnt much interaction outside of class, even though she really liked me?</p>
<p>If she already wrote you a good rec for a math. dept position and you go it, then it must have been okay. If there isn't any other professor you know personally, I would ask her for another recommendation letter.</p>
<p>In general, you want to choose professors that can attest to your qualities and potential as an engineer. Having a recommendation letter that merely says you did well in the course is not going to be a strong letter. In fact, the top engineering schools would give such a letter "0 points." They know you did well in the course because they have your transcript and so the letter is not providing them any new information. </p>
<p>The above pertains more to graduate school admissions, I was just mentioning it. But if this professor is going to write you a good recommendation, then I think you should ask her.</p>
<p>Well, I dont know personally any of the other professors from last semester, and this semester isn't looking too good so far either.<br>
Currently, I have a rec from my calc teacher from HS, my HS GC, and my advisor/prof from last semester. I really want to get a rec from either my SGA sponser or my boss from my math tutor job. So, i'm not so sure if I need it anyways, so I'll just keep it on the backburner.</p>