What's the deal with letters from the dean?

<p>I'm looking at admission requirements for schools, and some of them want letters of recommendation from a dean or school official in addition to one from a professor. How do I get one if I don't know any deans or school officials? With professors, you get to know them through class, but what do you do about deans? Do they mean officials as in academic counselors?</p>

<p>The “official’s report”, also known as dean letter, has to come from the Dean or someone with similar access to your academic record so they can confirm your gpa and academic record to make sure you don’t have any suspensions/probation on your record. A professor does not have that sort of access.</p>

<p>Usually you can walk into any Dean’s office and request a letter like that although they won’t be able to speak about you personally if you don’t know them on that level.</p>

<p>Oh I see :).
I know you can use class as an excuse to visit professors during office hours and get to know them that way. But is there a dean equivalent to the whole professor/class thing? How would I get to know a dean personally?</p>

<p>There are various ways but a lot of them involve being involved in your college through clubs/orgs, scholl committees, or other projects relating to the college for your major.</p>

<p>I know mine from being in student gov, from being awarded student leader of the year, and sitting on the advisory board for the college. You can always just make an appointment to talk to them to ask how you can get more involved in improving the student life and education experience for the major? Deans are used to filling out these forms though so it isn’t a big deal if you go ask their assistant if they’ll fill it out for you.</p>

<p>I know the dean @ my school (and the registrar and the campus pres. and my dept. advisor…) simply because I had questions that needed answering. I haven’t started attending my CC (which is one of the larger MDC campuses), but I’ve made contact with some really great people. They only seem hard to reach, but they (at least the people at my school) seem genuinely interested in helping students. </p>

<p>All you have to do is reach out. Like Kulakai said, make an appointment with your dean or get involved.</p>

<p>Makes sense…okay thanks!</p>