When to ask for recs??

[coffeeandmilk]

Hello everyone!

I am wondering when is a good time to ask Profs. for letters. I am considering doing it at the end of the summer (or as soon as I have a decent draft of my statement of purpose) because I figured they would be less busy. Is this too early?

[emmm]

No, it is not too early. Anytime after your applications officially open and they are able to do the electronic submissions should be fine. They may still, however, wait until the night before they're due (or even later) to send them.

[TakeruK]

Maybe it's just the schools I've been to, but most profs and students aren't in "grad school application mode" until October-November ish. So that's when most profs will be receiving their requests for letters from their students/former students. Personally, I decided to wait until November to ask for letters because I know my profs well enough to know that if I ask them now, they will be busy and forget about it. When they get requests from other students in Oct/Nov, they might not remember my request anymore! Then I would have to send a reminder, but I might as well have sent the original request in November then.

Also, if you are going to apply to a lot of places, it's helpful to ask for all your letters at once, and give them a document that lists all the schools. I didn't want to ask for letters for schools A, B, and C, then later add on School D and E and update the document because when it's time to actually write letters, they might accidentally view an older version and not see your more recent schools. And it would be unprofessional if you changed your mind a lot and kept sending revised documents.

So, personally, I would advise to wait until you know exactly which programs you are applying for and also exactly who (2-3 names perhaps) at these schools you might want to work with. This information will help your letter writers structure their letter. Because you might change your mind, and because I think profs like to send all their letters at once (just copy / paste, make a few edits -- I notice that in a span of ~1 hour, I would get emails from 5 schools saying Prof X has submitted the letter electronically now), I would advise to wait until Oct-Nov. to do this.

However, what I would do now is to give all your potential LOR writers a heads-up -- an email (or talk to them in person) like "Hey, I'm going to be applying for grad school in [field] this fall and winter, and I was hoping you would be able to write me a reference letter. If so, do you have any time restrictions I should keep in mind or any other requests? Also, if you would like to share any advice or tips, I would appreciate it. Thanks!" [edited to whatever level of familiarity you have with your prof of course. So then if they really would rather write the letters in the summer (maybe they are on sabbatical this fall), then you can go ahead and do that!

[ANDS!]

Make sure when you ask for letters or recommendation you ask them not "Can you write a letter for me. . ." but "Are you able to write a STRONG letter of recommendation for me. . ." Instructors will often give you what you ask for and some students here have gotten sticker shock when they realize a lackluster LOR might have done them in.

As for when, you can ask them any time, but generally two months in advance is enough time for them. While they will speak to your strengths that they are aware of - a lot of these folks are old hands at writing these letters and more likely than not to pull out an old one.

Edited June 30, 2012 by ANDS!

[fuzzylogician]

6-8 weeks in advance is more than enough notice, and is when most professors will start thinking about writing graduate school LORs. In the meanwhile, you can - and should - consult with your letter writers about potential schools to apply to. This can happen very soon, if not now. When you approach your potential writers, you can let them know you'd like to ask them for a letter later on, once you've decided where to apply, and that you'll keep them updated. There's plenty of advice on this forum on how to approach letter writers and what information to provide them, which I'd advise you to look up and follow.

*edited for excessive typos, even by my standards*

Edited July 1, 2012 by fuzzylogician

[MJordano]

Hey,

I've been talking with the professors I want to ask about grad schools for a while, and I'm doing/have done research with them, so I don't think any of them will be caught off guard if I asked for a recommendation. I plan on asking the first week of October because I want to have my application submitted mid-November. I agree with the above post to ask if they can write you a STRONG letter. It helps to give them some supporting documents like: transcript, CV/resume, writing samples/thesis proposals, statement of intent and a short auto biography (a couple paragraphs maybe).