Should I ask this person for Additional Rec.?

Applying to College
1

Hi all,

I am a rising senior who has spent the last 2 months doing a paid internship at a fast-growing small business. For about 8 of the 9 weeks I’ve been here, I’ve been working on a major project under one person. I outperformed the other interns by a large margin, asked relevant questions when needed, and hardly ever slacked off. I also showed up at least 5 minutes early each day (she can see when I log in to the online platform, and remarked that I was always early several times). I also made her laugh day in and day out, if being an actual person helps at all.

My one concern is that most of the time, I was given a project to do by myself and completed it while she was wrapped up in her own work. I’d always get a “thanks so much” but she hardly seemed to notice a lot of the work I put in.

Today is my last day (i.e. my last shot to ask her). She is always super busy, so I don’t want to waste her time if this wouldn’t be beneficial for me. My questions:

  1. Based on what's been described above, does this person know me enough/for long enough to make a meaningful impact with her additional letter of recommendation?
  2. How long should it be (in case she asks)? 3/4 of a page is okay? I would think more than a page will annoy the adcom.
  3. When should it be due for Early Action? Should I just tell her Oct 1 to be safe?

Thanks so much guys. Quick replies appreciated; if I ask her, it’ll be in less than 2 hours. Thanks!

2

If she is so busy that she can’t give you more than a quick thanks when you finish something, she probably wouldn’t write a very good recommendation. Not that she would say bad things about you, but it sounds like she never really took the time to get to know you and didn’t really appreciate what were doing. What do you think she going to say about you? I wouldn’t bother with it.

3

@me29034 Thanks for the feedback. She heard me interview a lot of people (over 40), and like I said, I often made witty remarks and had interestng conversations around the office, so people skills would definitely be something she would talk about. Additionally, like I said, she would mention how I showed up early (first one in the office every day) and got things done quickly, efficiently, and asked meaningful questions only when necessary. Besides screen interviewing freelancers, nothing I did was too complicated, but it took a lot of work (and Excel knowledge). So yeah.

4

Update: Asked for the rec.

“Sure, I’d love to! I can write it today if you’d like!”

I told her she has until like October, and she was happy about that. She’s just going to send it to me, so if it ends up being great I might as well use it, right?

Thanks for your input tho @me29034