How to ask for a roc from my boss during an internship?

[cfnczq]

I'm an undergraduate student(about to be a senior) and am doing an internship now in a scientific institution. My boss is a distinguished professor who is now working on a project in agricutural science(quantitive genetics). Since my plan is to work here for only one month, it seems impossible for me to work on something big. Now 2 weeks are past, and I did some work quite relative to my major(statistics) but not so close to the project. As I am going to apply for graduate schools in Nov, I really hope to get an letter of recommendation from my boss. Is there any chance I can get one during the left 2 weeks? IF SO, how should I ask for it or IF NOT, what should I do to strive for one?(to work for him longer?)

Besides, if he agrees to write me a LoR, how long should it be(500 words?), and in what form(a printed letter with his signiture or an electronic one which he needs to mail directly to those grad schools I'm applying by himself?)

It's quite urgent. Any advice is greatly appreciated.Thxxxxxxxxxxxxxx a lot.

[emmm]

A one month internship does not really sound long enough, but if you do not have other options for a LOR, it is better than none. If you can work for this professor longer, I would recommend it. Seniors often need LORs, so I doubt your professor would be surprised if you ask for one. He is probably very experienced at writing them. When you ask for the letter, be sure to ask if he can write you a STRONG letter. If he can't say yes, then find someone else. That will also give him the opportunity to say whether he thinks your association with him has been long enough to allow him to write a good letter. I think most professors would be honest with you if they do not think they can be strong advocates for you.

[cfnczq]

A one month internship does not really sound long enough, but if you do not have other options for a LOR, it is better than none. If you can work for this professor longer, I would recommend it. Seniors often need LORs, so I doubt your professor would be surprised if you ask for one. He is probably very experienced at writing them. When you ask for the letter, be sure to ask if he can write you a STRONG letter. If he can't say yes, then find someone else. That will also give him the opportunity to say whether he thinks your association with him has been long enough to allow him to write a good letter. I think most professors would be honest with you if they do not think they can be strong advocates for you.

Thanks for ur advice! Really helpful!

Well, to be honest, though I’ve seen many people talking about STRONG LoCs in this forum, I still don’t understand what exactly a STRONG one looks like. I’ve never dealt with this before, but what I know is that in China (I’m a Chinese college student), most LORs are written by students, at least true as I heard. However, I didn’t mean I’m going to write this one by myself! What I’m not sure is will the professor understand the term STRONG LoR is if I ask for one directly? And still the old question about the form…in paper or electronically?

Ps: I really admire ur GRE score, it is so cooooooooooooooooool!!!

[blubb]

forget about that LOR if your adviser there is not extreemely famous. That internship could be something for your SOP and you'd better ask your university professors.

[emmm]

A strong letter is one where the professor writes more than general, vague statements or just repeats information that can be found in other parts of your application (for example, so-and-so is a strong student who took classes x and y with me and got grades of whatever). Instead the letter should show that they know you well enough to describe your work habits and capabilities to do graduate work and research. Specific examples are helpful, such as so-and-so worked in my lab for x years. During that time, he worked on x and y projects. These qualities of his resulted in such-and-such wonderful stuff. In addition, he worked with little supervision and his insights and analysis of his data led to the investigation of x topic, with the following impressive findings. There are sample letters online, if your professors do not know what a letter should look like. This document might be helpful: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~harchol/gradschooltalk.pdf It's not your field (nor mine, but I found the section on letters helpful, anyway).