writing your own rec letter

[roguesenna]

So I asked my academic advisor from my MFA (who was also a member of my thesis committee) to write me a LOR and he asked me to write the letter so he could revise it. Now according to the googles, this is somewhat common, but I'm wondering how to approach it. I could discard this letter and ask someone else (perhaps my thesis advisor), but he is the professor that I had the closest relationship in grad school and he was also my academic advisor and the head of my department. should I buck up and write the letter or approach a different professor?

 

also, I waived my rights to access my other rec letters, but I don't know if it's ethical to say I waived my rights to this one when I'll be the one drafting it. do you think that would hurt my app?

 

finally, if anyone has any advice about writing your own rec letter, I'd love to hear it.

[Ciarrai300]

I'm in the same boat.  Writing your own rec can be really difficult especially if, like me, you hate writing about yourself.  That being said it says a lot that your professor trusts you and thinks highly enough of you that he'll let you write your own.  Keep in mind that he is still going to revise it so it isn't unethical at all to waive your rights.  In fact it is almost more important.  In your draft you may write that you were the greatest ever in a particular area but if the prof feels differently they can edit that part out and submit his honest opinion.  He may also think you're strong in an area you didn't mention and add that.  Writing your own just gives them an easy starting point.  They don't have to sit there and think back about all the awesome things you did because you remind them in your draft.

 

I tend to be super modest when writing about myself.  On a first draft that asked about communication skills I actually wrote "she is able to communicate."  Someone promptly pointed out that could describe a 3 year old.  The thing that helped me feel less gross about essentially bragging was to think about what I would say about other people in the program then see if I measure up.  I was in the Peace Corps so I'd think about a site mate.  For instance, one of my site mates did this amazing project where he got volunteers from around the country to come to a summer English camp for his students.  I thought about how I would describe his work and his skills and had no problem gushing.  Then I looked at one of my own projects that was similar (organizing a camp for special needs and typically developing kids to foster interaction) and was able to say, hey I have those skills too and I did a good job and then felt better gushing about myself.

 

As my recommender reminded me "don't forget that you rock!"

[TexasGuy]

thats the best situation you can be in IMO. 

[Sarah Bee]

I guess it's best to be able to draft it yourself as it can take care of all your concerns. I gave a long list of pointers to my professor to mention them but the letter turned out to be mediocre and I didn't like it at all. So I prepared one myself and requested the professor to put his signatures on it and he was okay with it. And now, it looks perfect -at least to me!