Letters of Recommendation from Tech professors? Options

[Dogmeat]

Ok I'm wondering how to go about doing this.

There isn't a single mechanical engineering professor in the tech ME department that would even have a clue who I was if I emailed them asking for a letter of recommendation, and the grad school I'm applying to requires three of them.

What do I do?

Do they just hand these things out to anyone or do you actually have to prove to them you deserve it?

I think I _MIGHT_ be able to get Dr. Oler to give me one, and MAYBE Dr. Muga ....

I mean should I just email the instructors I know I got good grades from and be like "Hi! Recommend me!"......?

[Psykopath]

Ok I'm wondering how to go about doing this.

There isn't a single mechanical engineering professor in the tech ME department that would even have a clue who I was if I emailed them asking for a letter of recommendation, and the grad school I'm applying to requires three of them.

What do I do?

Do they just hand these things out to anyone or do you actually have to prove to them you deserve it?

I think I _MIGHT_ be able to get Dr. Oler to give me one, and MAYBE Dr. Muga ....

I mean should I just email the instructors I know I got good grades from and be like "Hi! Recommend me!"......?

It really depends on the professor. Some will just type out a basic form letter, and toss in some personal junk based on attendance/grades/participation. If you can, try to get ones from classes in which you were highly active and knew the prof pretty well by semester's end.

[Dogmeat]

I don't think you could consider me "highly" active in any of the classes, I hardley talked to any of my professors at all.

I just showed up, did homework, and took tests.

[cmac]

talk to an adviser. i did that, and she miraculously came up with three letters.

[Spectatrix]

Email several, mentioning what classes you had them for and when, ask if they remember you and if they'd be willing to write you a letter of recommendation.

Even if they don't remember you personally that well (and you may be surprised), many would be willing to write a letter of recommendation if they see from their records that you did well in your class.

[Seeker]

why not just forge all of your letters?

[Psykopath]

why not just forge all of your letters?

I'd assume any graduate school worth its salt would check said references.

[Seeker]

that's why you put down your brothers, dad, and mom's phone numbers so they can pretend like the references

[impala454]

references are pretty over-rated anyways. it's just a bunch of BS from one of many form letters the prof has written up. you also don't see references get called hardly ever. the only way it'd really matter is if the professors looking over your application happen to know your prof from tech. in that case they might actually read the letter/care what it says and possibly call him.

[Testm0nkey]

uh for grad school letters of recommendation are reaaaaaaaaaally important. but a generic letter from a professor that is known to write one for anyone will mean next to zero.
sorry shoulda tried harder in school

[Epic]

dogmeat,

realistic suggestions

talk with the grad program, explain the situation, mayhaps they will allow you to substitute some work references for professor references.

get accepted to grad school, even if you can't necessarily get into the program you want initially. develop faculty relationships, get references. if you do it right, you won't fall behind.

take some shots in the dark and see if professors remember any of your work. try going through the advisor as well to see if they know of any profs that are understanding of this situation.

[Dogmeat]

well, this is another thing ...

For the field of study I'm going into, I have a _LOT_ of prior work experience, but no references. IE, I can't use my current job as a reference because if I do I'll be fired on spot.

The other thing is, the program I'm trying to get into isn't exactly a prestegious school by any means and didn't even HAVE a PE program from like 1994 until 2004 .... they cut it out entirley, and finally started it up again several years ago ..

They do offer MSPE and PhD in PE, but I cannot for the life of me think that people are dying to head to the University of Wyoming for a master's in PE, which I think is what will ultimatley get me in if I get in.

What I'm going to do is get my GRE done, apply, and then send them an essay stating that I really dont' have a lot of academic references, but I can give them a resume and a transcript and whatnot ...

I don't know, I kind of have a feeling that if I talk to htem about it they'll be a lot more lienient on me as far as the letters of recomendation go.

[Epic]

yeah, find some time to go in person and meet people in the department. ask for a meeting with the chair, a professor, an advisor, and possibly with some students. take initiative and look like a BA.

if they like you are a person and your transcript/test scores, the recommendation letters might be a moot point.

i know that there was a phd program that i was applying to that was familiar with some of my research and publications and told me that the application had to be complete just as a formality, so who knows.

and i know people who went to the university of wyoming and had a bombass time. apparently, since there's nowhere else to go in the state really, they do it up right.

[Dogmeat]

and i know people who went to the university of wyoming and had a bombass time. apparently, since there's nowhere else to go in the state really, they do it up right.

Yeah, I partied myself right outta there .... twice

[Testm0nkey]

no it doesnt mean you didnt try hard in school but if you want recommendations then yes should have tried harder so you could get those

[prefix]

references are pretty over-rated anyways. it's just a bunch of BS from one of many form letters the prof has written up. you also don't see references get called hardly ever.

Are you kidding me? Reference letters are the most important thing. I don't know if you went to grad school or not but if you get a letter of recommendation from a horn professor who's known in his field you are a practical shoe in. I know tons of people that have gotten into highly ranked programs and have gotten jobs purely out of getting letters of recommendation from certain people.

[impala454]

how cute you followed me around and found an old post to bark about after bitching at me about the iphone thread. and then you conveniently leave out the exception to what i'd said in my post in your quote. i said it only really matters if the professor reviewing your app knows the professor writing the reference. and in that case, they'll probably just call or email the other prof anyways. besides, it's not like dogmeat is talking about MIT here.

honestly, wtf do you think a professor is going to write about you? "oh he's a hard worker, blah blah blah". if you really think that every professor that writes these things doesn't have a couple of pre-formatted form letters that they slightly modify for each student, you're delusional. despite whatever relationship you think you have with them, they have better things to than sit around for hours on end trying to decide what made you different from the other ten thousand students they've had in their career. and the professor who's reading it knows it's full of just as much bullshit as the recommendations he writes for his students.

i've read a lot of letters of recommendation from both of my jobs (i was involved in hiring new developers) and we literally just sat around with a stack of them reading em to each other, laughing at the monotonous bullshit that was in them. there was crap like "so-in-so has a great understanding of object oriented development", or "so-in-so demonstrated an excellent ability to work in groups" blah blah blah.

[cmac]

i think letters are overrated too. but if you happen to have a letter from some harvard scholar or industry god i think it could give you an advantage.

[Inferia]

These letters don't have to be from only professors. I think they can come from practically anyone who's not related to you. The concept of these letters is for the graduate school to get an idea of who you are. If all they wanted to know are you grades, they already have that. So like when you applied to college in the first place, they asked for recommendation letters from tea

[Testm0nkey]

from all the recruiters for jobs and graduate schools ive talked to they say experience and good letters of recommendation is the best advantage.
"uh heh im kind of scared about my GRE score"
"oh haha will you have letters of recommendations?"
"yes"
"youll be fine!"

that was today. from a dude in the applications department at one of the top universities in my field

of course having a GOOD letter of recommendation is better than one full of bullshit. thats obvious

if you can get one from someone that will actually write one for you thats great. if you dont have those connections then do the next best thing and if you worked in the field with someone that got to know you and you did a good job try to find them.
can you possibly get in without them? sure. but they definitely help and many schools (all the ones i looked at) 3 is a requirement

[Epic]

it also depends on the department and program.

my GRE of 1380 wasn't good enough for Michigan's grad program I applied to, but i had the rest of the package taken care of.

another school told me that whenever i apply to just have all the paperwork done because they like my research and publications

we're all generalizing and then biting the heads off of someone else for generalizing.

[cmac]

that's why i liked smaller classes in grad school.
gave you a chance to interact with your professors and get to know them as people.
some of my grad professors would even come hang out with us at chimys after class.
every professor in my undergraduate would have no clue who i was.

[GOB]

that's why i liked smaller classes in grad school.
gave you a chance to interact with your professors and get to know them as people.
some of my grad professors would even come hang out with us at chimys after class.
every professor in my undergraduate would have no clue who i was.

my major (undergrad) at tech was like this until about mid last year

[kcroxyoursox]

I find it hard to believe that you can't find three professors to write you a letter. Yes they may be mostly pre-formulated, but that's all the grad school is asking, right? They're not asking profs to write bios of you. Just to say you got good grades, proved you were reliable by coming to class every time and doing all your coursework, and that you contributed to the environment by being courteous to fellow students and not being a troublemaker. I think saying "boo hoo no one knows me well enough to write my life story" is more of a cop out than form letters. Just my 2.

This post has been edited by Spectatrix: Oct 16 2007, 08:59 PM

[Dogmeat]

I figure I'm about 2 months away from a sizeable pay raise and a small promotion.

Not quitting. If the oil business dries up I'll go back to grad school, but I think until then I really just need the money

[JStrider]

I remember being told that if you cant find someone that knows you well and can provide lots of good info in their letter then provide that info for them.

give them a cover letter/packet with some points they can make and outline different things they can mention in the letter.

make it as easy for them as you can.