Worry Over Letters of Recommendation

[eflewis]

I am a rising senior looking to pursue a Ph.D. in Astronomy- currently, I'm a physics and applied mathematics double major. I have a couple strong points on my application- 3.7 GPA, 2 years of research experience, lots of extracurriculars and leadership experience (including the Society for Physics Students and Pi Mu Epsilon, the mathematics honor society). However, one big worry of mine is finding professors who will write me strong letters of recommendation.

One professor, the head of the lab I've worked in for two years, is pleasant and seems to like me, but he's a notoriously bad professor in the department (the good research groups were all full) and I'm worried that he just may not be good at writing a strong, convincing letter. Another professor is my academic adviser, and I think he'll be fine and will write me a good letter.

The third letter is my biggest fear- there is one professor that I've had a few classes with and have done well in. I have the opportunity to be an assistant TA for him in the fall, and I figured that between the classes and the assistant TA position he would have had enough good experiences with me to write a good letter. My only concern is that he is terrible at responding to emails and a bit scatterbrained/disorganized; he verbally offered me this position in May and hasn't responded to any of my emails since then asking for more solid details and how to prepare for the position. On the other hand, we have a very strong LIGO research group at my school and one of the professors in that group is very well known in the field and highly respected. I had one class with him that I performed very well in, but I'm not sure that we had enough interactions to ensure that he knows me well and that I could approach him and ask him to write me a letter/that he would have enough to go off of.

 

I know letters of recommendation are crucial to the application, so any advice on this subject would be greatly appreciated!

[BabyScientist]

53 minutes ago, eflewis said:

I am a rising senior looking to pursue a Ph.D. in Astronomy- currently, I'm a physics and applied mathematics double major. I have a couple strong points on my application- 3.7 GPA, 2 years of research experience, lots of extracurriculars and leadership experience (including the Society for Physics Students and Pi Mu Epsilon, the mathematics honor society). However, one big worry of mine is finding professors who will write me strong letters of recommendation.

One professor, the head of the lab I've worked in for two years, is pleasant and seems to like me, but he's a notoriously bad professor in the department (the good research groups were all full) and I'm worried that he just may not be good at writing a strong, convincing letter. Another professor is my academic adviser, and I think he'll be fine and will write me a good letter.

The third letter is my biggest fear- there is one professor that I've had a few classes with and have done well in. I have the opportunity to be an assistant TA for him in the fall, and I figured that between the classes and the assistant TA position he would have had enough good experiences with me to write a good letter. My only concern is that he is terrible at responding to emails and a bit scatterbrained/disorganized; he verbally offered me this position in May and hasn't responded to any of my emails since then asking for more solid details and how to prepare for the position. On the other hand, we have a very strong LIGO research group at my school and one of the professors in that group is very well known in the field and highly respected. I had one class with him that I performed very well in, but I'm not sure that we had enough interactions to ensure that he knows me well and that I could approach him and ask him to write me a letter/that he would have enough to go off of.

 

I know letters of recommendation are crucial to the application, so any advice on this subject would be greatly appreciated!

As far as the 3rd recommended goes... If you're asking him in the fall while you're TAing his class, you could bother him about it in person. Give him a deadline that's before the application deadlines.

Otherwise, personally I would advise taking a gap year. I recommend it in general just because I think it gives students an opportunity to mature into people who are ready to be graduate students, and it gives an opportunity to strengthen your application. I'm sure your application is strong now, but it could always be stronger, and a post bacc research experience could give you more LOR options.