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If you've been out of school for five years and you haven't maintained contact with professors during that time, when it comes to securing a letter of recommendation do you just ask employers for the letters instead? My dilemma is that I'm in the final phase of submitting what I need to for a graduate program. I graduated in 2009 and I did not keep in touch with professors. As it stands there were only 2 professors that I had a strong relationship with but I have not spoken to them since after graduation.
I have held positions since then and could probably secure two letters of recommendations from employers/mentors I've worked with when I used to go to church. My question is should I still try to get these letters from professors? The program didnt specify that it had to be done by professors... I submitted 2 letters to two professors that I thought would give me strong recommendations, I followed the format that I found online on how to request the recommendation and how to remind them of who I am. Upon sending this, neither responded. I then sent a follow up email. It's been three 3 days and no response from the follow up. My dad was telling me that I should just call the professors, since I live out if state and can't personally go see them. I'm debating on whether I should... My thoughts ard that I've already emailed them both twice and they have not responded in the last 1.5 weeks. I believe that they might not be responding because they don't want to write the lettters.
Calling them in that case then might not he a good idea because they might not be able to provide a good letter anyway if they truly don't want to. On the other hand I did email them both through their school email addresses and the school email system might not have accepted it... So calling them
Could work in my favor.
My question is what have those of you, who have been in my situation done about this? Did you still try to get letters from old professors or did you just get the letters from mentors/employers?
Just use your employers. It's fine and schools realize you've been out of school and lost touch.
I think your professors probably don't remember you, which would be fairly common unless you harassed them during your undergrad. So, it makes sense that they might be reticent to write them.
I was out of school longer than you and used my employers.
If it is a pHd, then it might be a little hairier.
Last edited by toobusytoday; 02-21-2014 at 07:25 AM..
Reason: fixed typo
If you've been out of school for five years and you haven't maintained contact with professors during that time, when it comes to securing a letter of recommendation do you just ask employers for the letters instead? My dilemma is that I'm in the final phase of submitting what I need to for a graduate program. I graduated in 2009 and I did not keep in touch with professors. As it stands there were only 2 professors that I had a strong relationship with but I have not spoken to them since after graduation.
I have held positions since then and could probably secure two letters of recommendations from employers/mentors I've worked with when I used to go to church. My question is should I still try to get these letters from professors? The program didnt specify that it had to be done by professors... I submitted 2 letters to two professors that I thought would give me strong recommendations, I followed the format that I found online on how to request the recommendation and how to remind them of who I am. Upon sending this, neither responded. I then sent a follow up email. It's been three 3 days and no response from the follow up. My dad was telling me that I should just call the professors, since I live out if state and can't personally go see them. I'm debating on whether I should... My thoughts ard that I've already emailed them both twice and they have not responded in the last 1.5 weeks. I believe that they might not be responding because they don't want to write the lettters.
Calling them in that case then might not he a good idea because they might not be able to provide a good letter anyway if they truly don't want to. On the other hand I did email them both through their school email addresses and the school email system might not have accepted it... So calling them
Could work in my favor.
My question is what have those of you, who have been in my situation done about this? Did you still try to get letters from old professors or did you just get the letters from mentors/employers?
Sorry for the typos on iPhone
To be honest you have chosen one of the worst time to try to get their attention. For many schools 2 weeks ago was still the beginning of the semester and a very busy time for most profs.
But if they haven't responded to the polite nag email, than you are going to have to use the employers.
I wrote a recommendation letter for a young man for grad school for whom I only knew personally because the college that he was applying to did not specify that it needed a professor. He asked me to do it because I knew him well and the major he was applying to was the same field as me.
Thank you everyone!!! So everyone is telling me that it just looks better to have the letter from a professor so I once again have attempted contact. I left two voicemails for both professors and I'm giving them until Thursday to respond if they do not I'm throwing in the towel and just getting the letters elsewhere
Thank you everyone!!! So everyone is telling me that it just looks better to have the letter from a professor so I once again have attempted contact. I left two voicemails for both professors and I'm giving them until Thursday to respond if they do not I'm throwing in the towel and just getting the letters elsewhere
Having worked in university admin and also as an academic advisor, helping students handle recommendation requests from their profs, here's what I would suggest:
***CALL the professors. Find out their office hours from the department staff, and call during their hours. You say you had a good relationship with them, so
***remind them of the salient points of that relationship. ("I wrote a paper for you on _______ and did a class presentation on ____________, back in ________ (semester/year).") They see hundreds of students annually, so they need a reminder to jog their memory. And that will help them write the recommendation. They may even go so far as to ask you to email them a summary of the work you did, so they can base their letter on that.
***Give them a deadline, then send a reminder email if you don't get your letter within a reasonable amount of time (10 days, 2 weeks, whatever).
***If you knew the advisor in the dept., let the academic adviser know you're trying to get a letter of recommendation from those two professors. S/he can help remind the prof of your request, and may be able to look up your file (if you were a major in that dept.) to see your grades, and any other noteworthy achievements. Sometimes the advisor helps the prof write the letter, sometimes not, it depends.
If you have the prof on the phone, then he can tell you up front whether or not he remembers you sufficiently to be able to write a letter. If you email, he can just ignore it, but if you have him/her on the phone, you can get more done.
If you've been out of school for five years and you haven't maintained contact with professors during that time, when it comes to securing a letter of recommendation do you just ask employers for the letters instead? My dilemma is that I'm in the final phase of submitting what I need to for a graduate program. I graduated in 2009 and I did not keep in touch with professors. As it stands there were only 2 professors that I had a strong relationship with but I have not spoken to them since after graduation.
I have held positions since then and could probably secure two letters of recommendations from employers/mentors I've worked with when I used to go to church. My question is should I still try to get these letters from professors? The program didnt specify that it had to be done by professors... I submitted 2 letters to two professors that I thought would give me strong recommendations, I followed the format that I found online on how to request the recommendation and how to remind them of who I am. Upon sending this, neither responded. I then sent a follow up email. It's been three 3 days and no response from the follow up. My dad was telling me that I should just call the professors, since I live out if state and can't personally go see them. I'm debating on whether I should... My thoughts ard that I've already emailed them both twice and they have not responded in the last 1.5 weeks. I believe that they might not be responding because they don't want to write the lettters.
Calling them in that case then might not he a good idea because they might not be able to provide a good letter anyway if they truly don't want to. On the other hand I did email them both through their school email addresses and the school email system might not have accepted it... So calling them
Could work in my favor.
My question is what have those of you, who have been in my situation done about this? Did you still try to get letters from old professors or did you just get the letters from mentors/employers?
Sorry for the typos on iPhone
You are cutting it really close here. I would immediately check out the FAQ found on the graduate school's website or perhaps the website of your intended program/department. Applicants for graduate programs range from coming-fresh-in-from-undergrad to being perhaps removed from undergrad by decades. You will be far from the first to ask this question, so it is more than likely answered in the FAQ.
For what I did, I applied the "shotgun effect". That is I sent out emails to multiple professors ("scattered", like a shotgun blast) with the hopes of "hitting" a few. I did select a grouping of professors with who I thought would have the best chance of remembering me, though. All professors eventually responded (I emphasize eventually) and I ended up with eight that agreed to write LORs on my behalf.
Professors deal with tons of emails everyday and expecting to receive a response within a week and a half is expecting a little too much. Not to sound harsh as you probably are not aware of that, but that is the reality. In terms of priority, responding to your email[s] falls behind students, faculty/administration, colleagues, journals, and so on. To top it off, even if one of these professors agrees to write an LOR on your behalf, they will need to do so ASAP as the deadline is probably near. Knowing that, they may wish to decline.
I would use colleagues or employers as the most practical option.
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