TIPS ON GETTING
Reminders about getting references
1. Ask a prof first if they will write a reference for you. You don’t want a prof
filling out a reference saying, “I don’t really know much about this student.” Who to ask? You should already know which prof has already expressed confidence in you. If none have
then you are in deep trouble when applying for grad
school. Usually you ought to tell the reference which schools you are applying
to if there are several. As for me I even want to know
what they are in order of preference. There are only a few
stellar references a professor can write each year and they certainly
don’t want to waste them on a student who really prefers another school.
Students often see a reference as an extension of their own relationship. But a prof also has a relationship
with the school for which he or she is writing a reference. A prof doesn’t want to waste their “reference clout” on a
student who really wants to go to another school. Most profs
are interested in how you rank the schools to which you are applying.
2. Waive the right to see references. Somewhere on your own application you will get a chance to waive your right to
read the references or you can refuse to waive it and insist on the rights to
see whatever the prof puts in your file. Profs with
any brains or legal sense never write a reference for a student who does not
waive this right. Profs can be sued for the tiniest
little statement in response to the “weaknesses Question” expected in most
references. So wise profs simply do not write
references when they find out the student has not waived this right. One
alternative for profs is this: they simply write a
bland reference with nothing good or bad—e.g. “I had this student in several of
my classes and they attended regularly” like an HR department now does to
protect their assets from suit. What’s a prof to do?
We must assume either (a)the student is sloppy and did
not even notice the waiver checkbox, or (b) the student actually intends to
insist on reading all the recommendations in their file. In either
case the prof gets bad vibes about this student. So check the box if you expect a good reference.
3. Apply early. The quicker you apply the better off you’ll
be. Early acceptance can also mean more money. Something else occurs here too.
Many profs have a personal quota system for references
to certain schools. I do. I will write only two strong references a year for my
alma mater, PTS and also for Duke. I usually write
those by Christmas, or sometimes by January. Glowing
references are like printing money—the more you write the less they are worth. So,
I only write two really strong references a year per school. I can’t say five
students are “one of our best students in the last ten years.” I can say that
for one, or at the most two. And when I write two one
of them is usually stronger than the other—I have to be honest. If you dilly
dally around and ask for a reference in March many profs have already “used up”
their glowing recommendations quota. And it should be like that—any
person who fiddles around and waits until March shouldn’t get a glowing
recommendation anyway—they probably would fiddle around and do their papers the
night before they’re due—and this kind of student would fail in grad school
anyway.
4. Remind your reference people. Most schools now use an
online reference company like applyyourself.com .
Writing a rec through these online companies is a
royal pain in the neck for your prof. Like most IT people they program everything to make it hard for the
person submitting and easy for themselves. For instance to upload a reference
letter recently the letter would not load... next I had to strip out of the
letter the jpg letterhead symbol and it still woul dnot load, finally I had to re-title the letter describing
the year-edition of Word then it loaded and I had to then review the letter as
an Adobe file. All this is easier for the company collecting the references but
harder for the prof who used to scribble on a
prepared form and drop these references into to a pre-stamped envelope in 5
minutes. Since we hate wrestling with complicated online references with newly
assigned passwords and sign-ins for each student most professors put off doing
their references until they have to. Theoretically
I do references on Fridays, but I often skip a week--I'd even rather grade
papers than write references online. The student who shows up Tuesday telling
me their reference is due Wednesday gets no reference. Also,
at the end of the semester when profs are grading a bezillion
papers and are crabby don’t expect the prof to be in
a good mood when writing your reference. All the new pain-in-the-neck online
reference procedures have made profs delay even more,
so sending a short cheerful email reminding them is a good idea. Your original
email to them, and the email from the computer assigning a password and sign-in
for your rec can get buried
behind a hundred emails in less than a week and might soon be forgotten if you
don’t give a soft reminder.
5. Thank your reference people. Getting a reference is not an
entitlement--you did not purchace a good reference
when you paid tuition. References are a generous gift of time a professor gives
an outstanding student. Thanking her for that time is only proper.
6. Keep the prof up to date on news. I
wrote a glowing reference for a student a few years ago and the student got
into an ivy league grad program especially because I
went out on a limb for him in my reference letter. He never told me he was accepted, never told me he was also accepted in another
prestigious school, and never contacted me to tell me where he decided to go.
Once he went to the final grad school he has not once
written a note telling me where he was and how it was going. All he did was use
me as a rung on the ladder of his educational career. I was a reference to
toss away like Kleenex. So if you ask your prof to
take an hour to craft a recommendation letter for you, at least give that hour
back to her or him by writing some notes in the future about what you decide to
do and how you did once you got into the school they helped you get into.