preparedness mistaken for presumptuousness

[Virago]

Hello all. So, I'm onto asking for my third letter of recommendation...and now I just read a post that says the following:

"After someone has agreed to write a letter of recommendation for you,the second step is to arrange a brief meeting to give them materials that will make their task of writing your letter easier. You may appear presumptuous if you come to their office to make your initial request carrying a copy of your transcripts or c.v. before they have even agreed to do this for you."

I've actually been doing what this post is advising against. Yikes. Is that bad? Should I NOT bring my materials when meeting my professor to ask for a recommendation? It just seems odd to meet with my prospective recommender JUST to hear a yes or no answer, then having to arrange another meeting to hand him my materials, wouldn't that come off as unprepared? Your thoughts.

[UnlikelyGrad]

I guess it kind of depends how you do it. If you have a packet of papers with their name written on it, then yes, that is presumptuous. If you have a generic packet w/o their name, it might be OK.

I personally went for the "bring-it-by later" approach, but I didn't arrange a meeting. I just swung by during their next office hours (because hardly anyone ever goes to office hours, so I knew they were free), handed them the packet, and then thanked them effusively for offering to write my letters.

[ktel]

I e-mailed most of my supplementary materials, which avoided having to have a second meeting.

[TakeruK]

It also depends on your relationship with the professor. If they advised you on a research project and you both know you did a good job, it's expected that you will ask them for a letter. So, coming in with copies of your transcript should be okay (but probably don't put their names down for anything until you get the confirmation), in my opinion. When I was in undergrad, I just dropped in my old supervisors' office and said "hey, I'm going to be applying for grad schools this year, would you write me a letter?", they answered yes, so I said I'd email them all my stuff and then I asked if I could set up a time later to get some advice in choosing schools, finding the right fit, etc. The second time I applied for grad school (PhD program), I was already at my MSc school across the country so I just did everything by email.

It's different when it's not someone who has supervised you (directly) since the dynamic of your relationship would be different. But it's pretty much part of the prof's job to write letters for people they supervised. Just presenting a different point of view!

[kaister]

I don't think this is presumptuous at all...that's my opinion. I mean I've done the exact things, because I wanted to be prepared by the time I asked them anyway. I've never gotten a bad response by being so prepared. Often after I asked for a letter they started to explain what they wanted, like a list, and CV, etc. and if I had the things they were asking for I gave it to them and just said "I brought these for you on the chance you agreed." Maybe I'm naive, but I think if anything it shows you know what is entailed with preparing materials for a letter writer. Plus they're generally just non-specific things like CVs and lists of schools, so they're not addressed to that person, so that goes along with my reasoning that you have just prepared these things in anticipation for your letter writers. How is that presumptuous? Maybe I'm totally off base and now I've come off as a presumptuous shmuck.