The professors that know me are unavailable...what do?

[thmp945]

TL;DR: the professors that knew me best are dead, retired, and unavailable. Advice?

And here's the long version:

I graduated in late fall 2011 and am currently applying to graduate programs in criminology.

I need 3 letters of recommendation.

My thesis supervisor is on board. So that's one. For better or worse, most of my master's program was centred on this professor. In addition to him being my thesis supervisor, I acted as his TA for two semesters and as an RA for two related projects both during and after I graduated.

The next professor in line worked with me quite a bit throughout my master's program and even referred his undergrad students to me as a private tutor. Unfortunately he died suddenly about 6 months after I graduated. This was a surprise to everyone as he was very young.

Next up is the internal examiner on my thesis committee. He strongly encouraged me to pursue a PhD after reading my thesis. I contacted him recently only to learn that he had retired suddenly, was out of the country, and unavailable to write me a letter. This was a surprise to me as I didn't think he was retirement age and it sounds almost as if he left the school on bad terms. He is not listed as a professor emeritus on the program's website so I'm really not sure what happened.

Next up is a professor I took two graduate seminars with. Definitely not my first choice, but what else do I do at this point? Unfortunately his wife was diagnosed with cancer my final year of study and he took early retirement as a result. I contacted him anyway only for him to reply that he's retired and will only write letters for students he has supervised in the past.

At this point my options for recommenders from my master's program are basically exhausted. I am very hesitant to contact professors that knew me 5+ years ago during my undergrad because they didn't know me that well even back then and I can't expect them to offer a very strong reference such a long time later. References from employers are difficult also. I worked for a company during my undergrad and was quickly promoted to a regional manager position and only had the CEO and CFO to report to. Fast forward nearly 10 years and these guys are worth hundreds of millions of dollars and are not available for something as hokey as writing a meaningful letter of recommendation for graduate schools. After that job I worked as an independent contractor for a while (again, no boss) and then started my master's program. The only other job I've had since was a government job this last summer. Although I know that there are at least 4 managers there who would recommend me to another employer or school, this job was totally unrelated to criminology and I'm not sure how much an admissions committee would care about what they have to say.

So I only have a single recommender at this point and time is running out. Any advice? Should I let the schools I am applying to know about my unusual circumstances surrounding letters of recommendation? Or should I not say anything and just submit one known good and two less-than-ideal letters of recommendation? What would you do?

[PhDreams]

Hey! First, hang in there. This will work itself out. You will find a solution.

 

I think there are a few places you can start-

 

Start with your advisor. He/she might be able to come up with people that you may have overlooked. Together you might be able to come up with a short list of people to talk to that could be willing to write you a strong letter.

 

Next, while it's less than ideal to get recommendations from people that you might not be initially psyched about, they might suprise you. If you know anyone from that last job where you have those contacts that would be wiling to have a meaningful chat with you, you might be able to pull out a really solid rec from them. Just be sure to let them know that you would like the letter to focus on your academic strengths like critical thinking, etc. It also might be a good letter to have because it can even speak to some of your leadership skills.

 

Lastly, do you have any mentors in your field? Have you had any volunteer experience that is strongly related to criminology that you may be overlooking? You might have to really think about these things, but I'm sure that you can come up with the three letters. They also might even turn out better than the ones you expected. Often letters from people that know you well can paint a great picture of who you are beyond an academic. While I'm not saying that you should look for character references, recommendations that create a holistic portrait of applicants are generally looked upon favorably.

 

Best of luck to you! I'm rooting for you.

[thmp945]

Thanks for your thoughtful reply and encouragement

 

Regarding my thesis supervisor:  a great academic, but very resistant to offering advice, even when specifically asked for. His standard answer whenever I've asked for advice is, "That's up to you." I've stopped asking at this point.

 

I've since contacted one of the managers from my last (government) job and she has happily agreed to act as a reference. I was confident that would be the case.  Unfortunately the fact remains that the reference is still not ideal since some of the schools that I'm applying to specify that they "prefer" the references to be from *academic* sources. But still, better than nothing!

 

Your last paragraph contains some great suggestions but unfortunately none seems to work for me. I don't have any mentors (yet), possibly due to the fact that my undergrad and master's program were both in Sociology (not Criminology) so my ability to associate with Criminologists has been very limited. That's why I'm pursuing a PhD in Criminology, not Sociology. I did get a job in my field at a youth correctional facility since graduating a year ago - specifically for the purpose of gaining professional experience and references - only to have the government phone me up after my second shift and tell me that I couldn't work at the facility due to union rules. In short, I was concurrently working in a government office job full-time and since the government was technically the same employer for both the office job and youth correctional facility job, the union would not allow it. Thanks, organised labour! This was doubly unfortunate because the hiring process for the correctional facility was very arduous, even requiring me to train for several months in order to gain the strength and speed necessary to pass the physical abilities test (I was one of the 6 out of 50 that passed).

 

For a final recommender, I've resorted to contacting a professor that wrote a letter for me over 5 years ago when I was applying to master's programs. Definitely not ideal since he can't comment on my abilities gained in my master's program, but better than nothing I guess. Hopefully he has a copy of the letters he wrote for me 5 years ago, because I'm sure he wouldn't be able to write a new one so long after I was his student. I'm waiting to hear back from him.

 

Assuming that these two new recommenders work out, I'm still wondering if it would be a good idea to include some sort of brief explanation to the admissions committee about why my letters of recommendation (with the exception of my supervising professor) are not from more qualified sources. Thoughts?

 

Thanks again for chatting with me about this!

[PhDreams]

I think that you can make these work! I was in a similar situation about academic references last year.

 

So what I did was try to be as thorough as possible when requesting a letter. I wrote a very brief paragraph about my research and my goals. I included a couple of bullet points in the email about my biggest accomplishments since they did not know me that well. And I also emphasized the reasons I was pursuing that specific degree at those schools. Lastly, I included my CV and a draft of my statement. Although these tips may seem like common sense, they are the best things to do in this situation and are often overlooked. The easier that you make this process for your recommenders, the better your letter is likely to be. Help steer them in the right direction. If you make it easy for them to include certain information, it is possible that they can work to create a letter that really highlights your strengths as an applicant.

[kroinster]

Hi there!

I was wondering if any of you guys could help me! It's not relative to this chat but I've never used a forum before so I don't know how to start anything.

Basically I am from the UK and I'm what Americans would say is a senior I think? So I will have to start my uni applications soon. I have a real ambition of studying my MA in the US and preferably in NYC. I'm gonna be contacting the universities over there soon. However, could anyone tell me if a criminology BA from the UK would be usable to get me on a masters in the USA. I'm really unclear and can't find anything to answer this! If you could help me that would be brilliant. Thanks!