When to ask for letter of rec?

<p>Ok so i know that you need letters of rec for any further schooling you want to go to after you graduate (ie. grad school, professional school, etc..), but when exactly do you go ask the professor you know well for a LoR? I am planning on going to grad school after I graduate, so am I supposed to wait until I actually apply to ask for the LoR, or can I ask right now? The reason im a little confused about when to ask is because if you ask at the time you apply for grad school, wont the professor forget you by the time you need the letter? if you ask for the letter right after your course ends at the end of the quarter when you know the professor well, wouldnt that be better cuz then everything will be fresh in their mind?</p>

<p>To be blunt, if you’re asking a professor that might forget you in a few months, you’re already asking the wrong person to be your referee (at least for graduate and medical school – law school, I’d posit, is less strict).</p>

<p>If you’re going into a Ph.D., asking a professor who only knows you since you took a class with him/her is the wrong person to ask. Ideally, a letter of recommendation should come from a professor whom can speak to you as a potential researcher: someone who can describe your personality, work ethic, demeanor, etc., which are things that only come from building a rapport with the professor (i.e., doing research, taking graduate courses, smaller and more challenging upper-division seminars, etc.).</p>

<p>If you can’t/aren’t willing to do that, then you may ask the professor to draft a letter now and they can save it for when it’s time to apply to schools. It’s standard nowadays (and I don’t know any who do it the old-fashioned way) for professors to just type their letters digitally, so as long as they have notice that you won’t be needing them to send it for n amount of years, you’re good.</p>

<p>ohh i see. cuz i was thinking about asking one of my gen chem prof’s to write me a letter of rec cuz I’ve been to his office hours a lot and we chatted about stuff like what i want to do in the future and other things. Im afraid that if i wait, then he might not remember me as cleary. so should i just do what you advised and ask him to write me a draft letter now? Is it better to ask an upper div prof to write LoR’s since you would ideally spend more time with them as opposed to a hugeass intro chem/bio class where they wont remember you?</p>

<p>What are you applying to?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>If you can’t answer that question, you should figure that out before even approaching professors. They want to know how to frame your letters.</p></li>
<li><p>If it’s an academic degree, do some research under a professor and have them write you a letter. If you get a letter from someone who just taught a class you did well in, this does NOTHING for adcomms that your transcript couldn’t illustrate.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I got letters of rec from two of my genchem professors – getting a good grade in their class and getting to know them is good, but they still won’t be able to evaluate much of your potential as a student/researcher/whatever. Try and see if you can work under them, or TA for them. It’s a good experience.</p>

<p>FYI - dunno which genchem professor you’re referring to, but crowell promises to write them then never follows up on it (two instances i can cite). hope it’s not him.</p>

<p>My sister got a good grade in her final and her professor sent an email to my sister and ask if she wants a letter of recommendation.</p>

<p>^unless the student and professor had significant interaction outside the classroom, that letter of rec wouldn’t be much use. saying “student X got an A+ in my class” is merely parroting the transcript. letters of rec aren’t meant to do that.</p>

<p>Ask a few months in advance. If your LoR are due in January, ask in mid-late October and keep reminding them as the dates get closer. They will probably procrastinate until the last minute just like students do ensuring that you have a heart attack as the deadline approaches.</p>

<p>You should give them fake due dates (earlier than normal) to ensure that they are done on time.</p>

<p>Yeah, DON’T do what I did and ask them for letters in November when the first deadlines were early December.</p>

<p>I hadn’t planned on applying this past round, but did at the last minute–they weren’t too pleased, but they all got in on time luckily.</p>