Writing Your Own Letter of Recommendation: An Opportunity

That they trust you to provide an honest self-evaluation. That your prof is over-worked, but still wants to support you, and, 2. In fact, it likely indicates two things: 1. If you’ve never seen a request like this before, it’s okay – it’s not all that uncommon, and it doesn’t reflect negatively on you. What?!”įor many, the response to such a request would be abject horror! You may think that this is some kind of test of your ethical sensibilities, or an indication that your professor doesn’t really want to act as a referee for you. Hi! Sure, happy to help! Go ahead put together a draft and I’ll review and sign it. Imagine seeing that reply to your request hit your inbox, taking a deep breath to brace yourself before opening it (“Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes…”), and then seeing this: Well, things are actually a bit more complicated than that. You’ll need to search for someone else at that point, but that’s better than a poor or ineffective letter of recommendation! In any case, all of this points to the need to find quality letter-writers and build relationships with your professors throughout your time in university.Īt this point, you may assume that your request for a letter of recommendation will be met with one of two answers: “Yes, happy to!” or, “No, sorry”. A professor will usually only refuse to write a letter if they feel they simply don’t know you and your work well enough to write you the kind of recommendation you need to actually succeed.

But, unless you just completely bombed a course, those negative responses are often in your best interest. If you’re desperate for, say, a third letter-writer and are reaching out to any and every prof you’ve ever met, well, then you may get a “no”. You should be asking for letters from professors with whom you’ve been building rapport for some time – those in whose classes you’ve done well, those who have evaluated your work, and so on – and if you’ve built that rapport, there’s very little chance that they’ll say no. The latter two of these are highly unlikely, and if the former happens, it’s not necessarily the end of the world. So, when you send that request for a letter of recommendation, it may be done with bated breath and a sense of uncertainty – What if they say no? What if they laugh at your request? What if they’ve just been being nice to you? Well, first things first: Relax.

Letter of reference