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<p>Now I have to note that I wouldn’t let odds have anything to do with asking for a recommendation. I earlier noted that I felt our son had extremely low odds of getting into MIT, and yet I never thought twice about his asking people for recommendations (though I did think the people he asked might be ruling him out from getting admitted as the application said to submit LOR from three professors or two professors and a <em>current</em> employer and he had letters of recommendation from the president of his university, the director of his honors college - whom he had for two upper level honors courses but neither were in CS or math or a science of any kind, and a <em>former</em> boss). I just figure it’s part of an employer’s or professor’s job to write LOR for workers or students they’ve had unless they feel they can’t write a decent letter, in which case they should say something along the lines of “Sorry, but I don’t have time to write you a letter anytime soon, so please ask someone else.”</p>
<p>Indeed, I think any teacher should feel <em>honored</em> to be asked to be writing a letter of recommendation for a student as it shows that student thinks the teacher’s word matters, that the teacher writes very well, etc. So try to look at it as a win/win for you and the teacher both.</p>