How to best approach a Professor for an LOR ?

[ahmadka]

Hi guys ... I want to contact my previous Masters degree professors for a LOR for my upcoming applications for a second Masters (reason already discussed in my other threads) ... However I feel it might sound too self-centered if I email them out of the blue and ask if they can write an LOR for me ..

 

Unfortunately I cannot meet them in person as I'm half-way around the world, so email is the only way I can contact them (cold calling them seems even worse) ..

 

Do professors mind if some student who took their course a few years ago, cold email contacts them and asks for an LOR ?

 

What's the best way to approach and ask them without coming off as being a self-centered guy ?

[nugget]

Try giving them an update on what you've been doing since you graduated, briefly mention your new goals and interests and that you plan to apply to grad school. Then ask if they could provide you with a reference letter and let them know you'd be more than happy to provide them with a copy of your resume, SOP, or anything else they might need to help them do that. I'd be brief and write a few sentences explaining all of this and see what happens. Good luck!

Edited October 13, 2014 by jenste

[ahmadka]

Hmm ... Some good points there .. Anything else which I can do to tip the favors in my direction ?

[ahmadka]

Would love to get some more opinions regarding this ...

[lzs]

Professors get requests for LoRs regularly, it's part of their job, they're used to it. It's not like you're asking them to donate a kidney. Of course it does take them significant time and effort, if they're writing a good letter, and of course you should be polite and give them plenty of time and all the information they need, and leave them room to decline, and express your gratitude if they accept, and so on. Maybe send a sample of work you did in their class to jog their memory. But, while there are plenty of things you can do wrong, there's no secret key to making someone write a good letter for you. It depends if they were genuinely impressed with you, how much time you give them, how many other letters they've already agreed to write, what's going on in their personal lives right now -- some stuff you can control and some stuff you can't.

[ahmadka]

Another question ::: What do I write in the subject of the email ?

 

As professors get a lot of emails, it needs to be something which stands out, but not something cheesy 

 

One way is to just write something like: "Would be honored if you can write an LOR for me", but it seems too forthcoming.

 

Suggestions ?

[smg]

Another question ::: What do I write in the subject of the email ?

 

As professors get a lot of emails, it needs to be something which stands out, but not something cheesy 

 

One way is to just write something like: "Would be honored if you can write an LOR for me", but it seems too forthcoming.

 

Suggestions ?

 Just ask.  I asked my undergrad thesis adviser from 2006 after being out of the loop for years.  It was not a problem whatsoever.  Just ask and give your former prof an update on your research, goals, etc.

[lzs]

Maybe "grad school advice" or "grad school question" as a subject line?

[maelia8]

Asking for a LOR years after the fact is perfectly fine I went overseas on a Fulbright and had to ask for LORs a full year and a half after graduation from undergrad, and it wasn't a problem at all. Of course, it's easier if you've been staying in touch with the professor and writing them newsy little emails every couple of months, as some of my friends do, but I just wrote an email to the profs with the headline along the lines of "greetings and update about academic future" or something like that, and my LOR writers were happy to help me