Tips to receiving above average letters of recommendation on short notice (2 months)?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I will be applying to graduate school this fall and, like most other applicants, I am scrambling around trying to find potential professors to write rec letters.</p>

<p>I have 1 professor, who I believe will write strong a strong rec letter for me (He was my PI during a summer reseach program, and we are planning on publishing a paper together this winter, with me and my project partner being first authors).</p>

<p>But I am scrambling around trying to find 2 more.</p>

<p>I do have two accredited and well known professors in mind. I will be taking classes with both this Fall. Furthermore, I will be researching for one of them as well. (the downside is that the project will be supervised by one of the professor's grad students and the professor will only drop by once in a while).</p>

<p>However, since time is short (in 2 months, I will politely ask them to write the rec letters) what can I do, as student, to improve my chance of receving rec letters that are better than the typical " ... this student performed well and received an A in my class ..." type of letters?</p>

<p>I have made a conscious effort of stoping by their office hours, once a week, and ask them about questions pertaining to the class and the field. But is that enough? Can I do more? If I can, what else can I do to make a strong impression and improve my professor's perception of me?</p>

<p>Last question, is there a unwritten rule inscribed somewhere that says "thou shall not ask your professors to write more than X amount of rec letters?"
And what is that X amount? 6 letters, 8 letters, 10 letters?</p>

2

<p>two months is plenty of time....why would you think two months is too short a notice?</p>

3

<p>He plans to ask them for a rec after only knowing them for two months. He's not talking about not giving enough time to write the recs.</p>

4

<p>Most professors will write their recommendation and xerox it for each school (or, as the case so often is now, copy-paste it), so it really isn't any more work to ask a professor to write a few letters or many.</p>

5

<p>yeah, I meant what merper68 said
that i plan on asking them for rec letters after knowing them for 2 months... sorry for any confusions</p>

6

<p>oooooooooooh i got you. hmmmm.....if that's the case, i am not sure what you should do....i would suppose it wouldn't hurt ot ask...i woudl guess the prof would mention if he thought you should choose someone else who knew you better.</p>

7

<p>I think two months is ample time. When I applied last fall I was also unsure who I could get to write my letters, a problem compounded by the fact that I had been abroad for the entire previous year and therefore had been totally out of touch with professors at my 'home' university. But I easily got close enough to two of my professors in the first couple months and they both wrote what were probably great recs. I think you are on the right track in getting to know them and I am sure you will be fine. I would also make sure that you are an active participant in their classes.</p>