Who to ask for LOR-it's complicated

[Sueño2014]

I've been teaching Adult ESL/EFL for the past 10 years, love the field, and want to start grad school Fall 2015.  It looks like many MA TESOL programs are ok with all professional LORs, and I have great professional references so that wouldn’t be hard. The problem is that I don’t want to study in a professional program that focuses on pedagogy and just briefly covers theory, which is what many MA TESOL programs seem to do. I want some serious brain food from a good program that studies SLA in depth (ie MA Ling/Applied Ling/SLA).  The more serious programs require academic LORs.

 

 

That isn’t easy since I graduated from university (foreign language degree) 17 years ago and was a pretty underwhelming undergrad student.  I entered school with good SATs, a few scholarships, and tested into the top 2% of all incoming freshman on my foreign language exam.  However, I did not do my best in my classes and finished with only a 3.4 GPA (major and overall).

 

 

I’m worried that none of my professors will be able to write me a strong LOR.   I turned down some opportunities as an undergrad, which I’m sure made me look like a less-than-motivated student.  I was a first-generation college student and was pretty clueless about how to succeed in college.  Also, my family issues were so overwhelming that I considered dropping out of school several times.  Most of college was about just doing my best to try to focus on school and not worry about family drama; I didn’t have the emotional resources for anything extra. I never talked to my profs about this b/c I didn’t want to sound like I was making excuses.

 

 

So…with that said, here are some people I was considering asking for references:

--Professor I had for 2 language courses.  He chose me to go on an international summer research trip.  I foolishly declined (family issues).  My thinking (possibly wishful) is that he might be able to write me an LOR saying that he viewed me as a strong candidate for research as an undergrad.

--Professor of 2 language translation courses (both A-).  No research involved in class; purely translation work, but one was a graduate level course, so I was hoping that might count for something.

--Grad TA who was my mentor for an internship in the Study Abroad Office (SAO staff personally chose students to intern in office, but since they were not professors, I assume they wouldn’t count as effective LOR writers), which included an independent language research project.  

--Professor of one seminar class in my major; I got an A- in the class and wrote a research paper.  He told me he would like me to stay on at the university and do research with him, but I declined due to family issues.  He saw my work and obviously liked my research potential—but I only had him for one class.

 

 

Those were my only experiences with actual research as an undergrad.  I did complete a related certificate in foreign language/culture, and studied abroad (and received a scholarship), but neither of those accomplishments were specifically tied to research or a specific professor so wouldn’t help with LORs.

 

 

 

What do you think?  Should I contact my undergrad profs (most of whom are no longer at the school; I’d first contact department for their contact info) and hope that at least one is willing to write a strong LOR, or delay grad school and take courses at a local uni to get more recent LORs?  

Edited February 24, 2014 by Sueño2014

[fuzzylogician]

What do you think?  Should I contact my undergrad profs (most of whom are no longer at the school; I’d first contact department for their contact info) and hope that at least one is willing to write a strong LOR, or delay grad school and take courses at a local uni to get more recent LORs?  

 

Before you go down either of these routes, could you try and contact a few of the schools where you are considering applying for your MA and ask them what their preferences would be for letters? Your current options for academic LORs seem quite weak and I'm sure would not do you as much justice as professional LORs would. However, since you've been out of school and working as a professional for 10 years, it's possible that the schools would prefer to have more current non-academic LORs as opposed to the much older academic ones. If you are applying to research programs that insist on at least one (or two) academic LORs, you would probably be well advised to seek out one/two designated LOR writers and establish a relationship with them now, so that by next year's application season they will have known you for some time. Your two best options are either to reconnect with one of the profs from your old school, or else to seek out someone from your local uni. If you can find someone who is willing to support you through the application cycle, either through taking courses with them, doing an independent study, or just meeting them and talking to them about work that you are interested in, that would be very helpful. Either way, I would probably say you should try and apply for the MA next cycle with the best letters you can have, see what happens, and if you don't get accepted then spend a year taking courses at the local uni and then try again. Who knows, you might do better than you imagine. 

[Vene]

I'm going to say you really should have two academic LORs, one at absolute minimum. Your professional career does mean that a non-academic reference is worthwhile, but at least in my experience, graduate schools want academic references.

I took some time to work before applying for graduate school so I had a mix, for 2 programs I sent in 2 professional LORs and 1 academic LOR and for 3 programs I sent in 2 academic LORs and 1 professional LOR. With the former programs, I've gotten no word and have written them off as rejections. With the latter I got two interviews. I know this is a very small sample size, but does make me think that it's not wise to have any more than a single non-academic LOR.

[Sueño2014]

Thank you, Fuzzy Logician.  It's really helpful to get advice from someone in the Linguistics field. 

 

Either way, I would probably say you should try and apply for the MA next cycle with the best letters you can have, see what happens, and if you don't get accepted then spend a year taking courses at the local uni and then try again. Who knows, you might do better than you imagine. 

 

That's a good idea.  I've been thinking of it as an all-or-nothing situation, but if I get rejected the first year, I can always reapply.  

[Sueño2014]

Oh, and I did contact a few schools that I was interested in.  I haven't heard back from 2 of them (I'm assuming they're still busy sending out letters for 2014), but one program's Graduate Advisor told me that while my professional references sounded good, if I had over a 3.0 as an undergrad, I should try for at least 1 LOR from that school.  Since that grad program is one that doesn't specify that the LORs have to be academic, and I'd assumed that they would say that 3 professional LORs were fine, I was a bit worried by the response.  I'm sure if/when I do hear from the other more-academic programs, they're going to want even more academic LORs.  

Edited February 25, 2014 by Sueño2014

[Sueño2014]

I'm going to say you really should have two academic LORs, one at absolute minimum. Your professional career does mean that a non-academic reference is worthwhile, but at least in my experience, graduate schools want academic references.

 

Thanks, Vene.  You're right; I'm sure the more academic LORs, the better.  That's the hard part about only having professional references.  Most of my fellow teachers who have gone for their MA in the field have chosen professional programs geared towards working adults.  I'm hoping to make that transition into academia, so I'm going to have to get those academic LORs.  

[fuzzylogician]

Oh, and I did contact a few schools that I was interested in.  I haven't heard back from 2 of them (I'm assuming they're still busy sending out letters for 2014), but one program's Graduate Advisor told me that while my professional references sounded good, if I had over a 3.0 as an undergrad, I should try for at least 1 LOR from that school.  Since that grad program is one that doesn't specify that the LORs have to be academic, and I'd assumed that they would say that 3 prof LORs were fine, I was a bit worried by the response.  I'm sure if/when I do hear from the other more-academic programs, they're going to want even more academic LORs.  

 

In that case I would work on and getting two strong academic LORs and later down the line I would see if it is possible to submit four letters instead of the required three, so you have two strong professional LORs and also two academic ones. My guess is that most schools should be happy with just two LORs from someone who has been out of school for as long as you have. But, as I said above, if you can get precise instructions from the schools you are interested in, that's better than my guesses