<p>I wasn't sure which is better or does it not matter?</p>
<p>You should ask in person, and follow up with an email if you use naviance/online app.</p>
<p>You are asking someone to commit a significant chunk of their time, AND you would like them to have a favorable opinion of you. Definitely ask in person.</p>
<p>In person. Don’t forget your “please” & “thank you.”</p>
<p>If you want the writer to actually recommend you to the colleges you’re applying to, request it in person.</p>
<p>Request it in person. It’s much more friendly :)</p>
<p>In person. When it’s important to impress people and you need a huge favor, always ask in person. Email is for asking about the homework assignment.</p>
<p>Asking for a recommendation via email just might be worse than asking someone out over text.</p>
<p>Obviously you’ve gotten the message to ask in person. I’m going to add something S3 learned when asking for a LOR for a summer program. Ask when there are not a lot of people around. Go in early, or stay late, and simply say “may I speak to you a moment in private please”. Teachers, coaches, etc., often only commit to giving out a certain number of LOR’s per year, or per program. Once they hit that they start saying no. S3 asked about half hour before first bell, but this is a popular teacher who always has a busy class and there were quite a few students around. The teacher had started turning kids down for LORs a few days prior so she had no choice but to turn S3 down. A few days later I received an email from the teacher expressing how she wished S3 had asked her privately, she’d love to give the LOR, she just couldn’t tell him ‘yes’ in front of a group of kids that already knew she wasn’t giving any more. Sadly, by this point S3 had already asked another teacher and he wrote to graciously thank her and let her know.</p>
<p>Lesson learned. Ask a teacher privately. Even if they have maxed out the number that they will officially write and are turning people down, if they want to write one for you because you are really a favorite student (ie this is going to be a good LOR) they have the leeway to say yes without other students knowing.</p>