LOR from Continuing ed courses

[englishgrad]

Hi,

Is it possible to get good letters of recommendation from teachers who I took in a continuing education class at a local college?

I am interested in taking two creative writing classes this summer in order to help prepare my writing sample for grad school and to possible get additional letter writers.

The courses I will take are non-credit/continuing ed, but they are for several hours each week for about 10 weeks. Do you think it will be possible to convince these teachers to write letters on my behalf? they may not be professors.

Thanks!

[mudlark]

I think the question is not whether they'll be willing to write the letters, but whether those letters would help your application. Are you applying for creative writing programs? If not, the letters would have no value. If so, it would be better to take for-credit creative writing classes and seek your letters there. The other big question is whether the teachers have relevant PhDs. How can somebody attest to your ability to excel in a graduate program, or to your research potential, if they have no experience with graduate level research? Ultimately, I think that using non-credit continuing-ed instructors as referees will just make you look like you're not a serious contender. I'm sure a lot of incredibly well educated, talented people teach those classes, but I'm sure there are also a lot of people running those classes with little to no academic experience. You need impressive letters from someone who has the institutional cred and credentials to back up the glowing things they're saying about you.