Letter of Recommendation

[Katiex3]

Hi everyone,

I've been out of school for over 2 years and now I'm getting ready to apply to grad school. I emailed a professor to ask about a letter of recommendation over a week ago and haven't heard back yet. 

My first question is how long should I wait before following up, and how should I follow up? 

Also, I was a complete hermit in undergrad. The professor I reached out to is the only one who's class I even participated in, and it was a small class of about 10 so I feel she would likely remember me. I sent her my resume and final paper for her class, as well as explained a bit about what she did for our specific class to refresh her memory. 

If this professor does get back to me and says no, I'm honestly of options. Does anyone have any advice in this situation? Would it be weird to email a professor who's class I never even spoke up in and who probably wouldn't remember me?

I have plenty of people I can ask on the professional side, as I've opened up a lot since starting to work. Unfortunately I can't go back and change how I was in school and I'm kicking myself for it now. 

[fuzzylogician]

38 minutes ago, Katiex3 said:

Hi everyone,

I've been out of school for over 2 years and now I'm getting ready to apply to grad school. I emailed a professor to ask about a letter of recommendation over a week ago and haven't heard back yet. 

My first question is how long should I wait before following up, and how should I follow up? 

Also, I was a complete hermit in undergrad. The professor I reached out to is the only one who's class I even participated in, and it was a small class of about 10 so I feel she would likely remember me. I sent her my resume and final paper for her class, as well as explained a bit about what she did for our specific class to refresh her memory. 

If this professor does get back to me and says no, I'm honestly of options. Does anyone have any advice in this situation? Would it be weird to email a professor who's class I never even spoke up in and who probably wouldn't remember me?

I have plenty of people I can ask on the professional side, as I've opened up a lot since starting to work. Unfortunately I can't go back and change how I was in school and I'm kicking myself for it now. 

Since it's been a week, you could go ahead and send a reminder. Or you might wait until next Monday and follow up then. 7-10 days is a good time to wait between sending the email and the reminder. You follow up by forwarding the email and saying something like "Dear Prof. X, I'm not sure if the email below reached you, but just in case I thought I'd follow up. Looking forward to hearing from you! -me" or some such (so, pretend maybe they lost the email and just send it again). 

If you have to send another email, I would advise not sending unsolicited materials with the initial request. Propose to send everything (and list what those things are), but only send them if you are asked to. For now, all you can do is wait and see. If you are physically near the university, you could propose coming to office hours to chat to the professor, so they can remind themselves of you and attach a face to the name. 

It's really hard as a professor when you get requests from students who never participated, especially in a large class. When this happens to me, I have to decline. If I don't remember the student, they never participated or came to office hours, and the TA (not me) graded their work, I really can't say anything other than "X took my class and got [grade]." I can't even be sure they were in the classroom any of the time, and I have no opinion about what kind of student they are or if they have potential to succeed in grad school. It'd be an extremely weak letter, and I don't want to do that to anyone. If you have to ask for a letter from a professor in a similar situation, you really have to help them help you: it's better if you choose a class where the professor did the actual grading (if there were assignments), or where you wrote a final paper you could send them along with their comments. If you gave a presentation and have the materials, that helps. And if you can come by their office and chat, that helps too. Absent all those things, I personally would not agree to write a letter in that situation. If this is really where you're at, maybe the solution is to have two letters from your job and only one from the university, and hope that you can find someone who agrees to write you a 'did well in class' letter if you are upfront about needing the letter just for the formal requirement, but you know that it won't be a strong letter.