have you ever gotten a letter of rec from a professor that you only had for one

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It's not ideal, but tons of applicants do it.
 
All of my letters were from professors that I had for only one semester. Try to get to know them better, if you are still currently in their course. Make sure to ask them point blank if they can write an excellent letter of recommendation for you and offer to give them some personal information about yourself to assist in their letter writing (consider giving your PS as well). It worked for me!
 
I don't know.

My bio I teacher wound up also being my biochem prof. Not only did i have a great time with her professorship; but she liked me as well. It will make for one heck of a future LoR.
 
This could be fine depending on the class size and your relationship with the prof. I did it for one of mine.
 
Your professors are there for you to assist you, especially with situations like getting a recommendation letter. Make sure you establish an open line of communication with them early on in the class and let them know that you are hoping to do well in their class and subsequently get a letter of recommendation from them. Just make sure your always friendly with them and let them know more about yourself.
 
If you do well and meet with the prof in office hours so they actually know who you are, there's a good chance they can write a decent letter.
 
Two of my recs are going to be coming from professor I've had only 1 semester each but since I go to a very small LAC, those classes have been with less than 15 people each. The english class had a lot of discussion and I saw her in office hours a lot so she got to know me pretty well and my other science class required a couple 20 minute+ 1 on 1 presentations of a paper assigned by the professor followed by a 30 minute discussion with him on the specific topic so he also got to know me very well.
 
Barring something unusual I would avoid it if possible. Unless the class is structured such that you have frequent, individual contact with the professor, I doubt you can get a strong letter from a professor you had once. Obviously he/she commenting on your academic performance is helpful, but the real value is that plus the character judgments the professor makes. In most courses he/she simply isn't going to get to know you on that level. I'm not saying it's impossible by any means, but IMO the AVERAGE classroom experience isn't going to yield you a great letter.

(sent from my phone)
 
Yeah I think I am going to find another professor to get a letter from. I never even went to office hours and she knows who I am (I answered a few questions in class and went to see her to look at my test), I dont think this is enough.

If I am applying in june 2013 would it be possible to get a letter from a professor that I had for spring 2013? would there be enough time? I am planning on going to office hours a ton of times to get to know them next semester.


thanks.
 
I'm going to ask for a LOR from a humanities professor who taught me for one semester, and who I never talked to him outside of class. It's going to be awkward as hell but he's my only option for a humanities LOR.
 
Two of my letters were from professors I had for one semester, and one was from a physician I shadowed for four days. Recently accepted, so it's definitely doable. Went to virtually every office hour, no doubt.
 
I'm having the same problem.. how is one supposed to get to know a professor in a class of 200+ people?
 
That's basically what I did. I just got professors who don't know me well to interview me then write a somewhat generic letter. The only strong one is from my PI.

I have 2 rejections so far so I know that this is the preferred method.
 
I did that for three of my letters - with one caveat. Two were humanities professors, who I have also asked for reference letters before in the past, which allowed me to chat and have them get to know me after I finished their classes. I would also say that I distinguished myself in those two classes - I enjoyed the classes immensely and made it evident while they were teaching me, which also helped them to write favorably about me.

The other two was my Cell biology professor, and I was fortunate in that by deciding to take the honors version, I was also a part of a 15ish person journal club that was separate from the regular portion of the class, so I also got to interact with the professor in a different manner. And it also helped that I studied my butt off for the class - so much so that when it came to tests, even my grade was able to make me stand out.

I'll also add that for each LOR writer, I assembled a packet with my grades, PS and resume of activities, and I also took the time to sit down and talk to them face-to-face and answer any questions they had about me. Getting a quality LOR is like anything else - you NEED to put in the effort/time. And especially when it comes to character assessment: how else is a professor supposed to get to know you unless you really go the extra mile? If you feel like you don't know a prof well, go to office hours, talk to them after class, ask questions in class, apply to opportunities on campus where you may need them to recommend you, etc.

And IMO, it's much easier to get started with this in humanities classes - you end up having smaller classes and more discussion/exposure, which I feel is more telling of your personality than regurgitating information on a test and showing up to office hours. So in this respect, I'm immensely glad that I made the choice of adding on a foreign language as a second major, as it ended up being very much a blessing in disguise when it came to LORs.
 
One of my strongest letters (told to me by an adcom) came from a professor I had for a week. She led a volunteer trip that I translated during.


Sent from my iPod using SDN Mobile app. Please excuse the typos.
 
My 2 science and 1 non-science were from professors I had for 1 semester. I even asked via email (I now live 1900miles away) and the classes were 2-4 years ago.

I also have 2 very strong letters from PIs that I had worked with full time for 2 or more years.
 
Only one of my six letters was from a professor I had for one semester. That being said, I was pretty close with said professor, and there were some very unique aspects of that particular class that I wanted highlighted (and, surely enough, they were in interviews).
 
I think there were only 3 professors I had more than once. Only one of my letters was from a professor I had more than once, and his probably was the weakest.
 
I had to do this for one of my science prof. letters. I really only asked him because some schools specifically require letters from two science professors, even though I did really like him. I just made sure I went to office hours a lot and aced the class. Was it ideal? Probably not. Did it stop me from being accepted to medical school? Nope!
 
I did for one since I was a post-bacc and did not major in science during undergrad. One of the professors I got to know well was during a single semester. The key word is, "got to know well." It might not be ideal if you don't know the person well, but you can develop a relationship pretty quickly by participating in class and seeing them during office hours. My non-science letter was from a professor I had over a two year time frame though.
 
Isn't this normal? All my professors I've only had for one semester, and all my letters came from them.

It would be unrealistic to only get letters from a professor that you take 2 classes with. Some professors don't offer multiple courses....

Unless you do research projects with them, then I suppose that counts, which is what a lot of people do. If that's what people are referring to, then that makes sense.
 
Two of my letter writers (both science profs) ony taught me in one course, but I did research/other ECs with them, so they knew me very well. In fact they actually knew me before I took their course.

For my humanities letter writer, I took 2 courses with her so she got to know me very well. One of those courses was a very small class (6-7 students), so I participated more than anyone else. That definitely helped me a lot in ensuring that my letter from her was strong.
 
How to get prof brownie points -> sick LORs

1. Participate a lot in class (to get noticed)
a. Ask intelligible questions
b. Answer the questions that the class hushes for 30+ seconds and bomb it

2. Ace the exams

3. Go a lot to office hours and engage in a bamf discussion

4. (Optional) Flirt with the professor :meanie:
 
Skull Pell said:
How to get prof brownie points -> sick LORs

1. Participate a lot in class (to get noticed)
a. Ask intelligible questions
b. Answer the questions that the class hushes for 30+ seconds and bomb it

2. Ace the exams

3. Go a lot to office hours and engage in a bamf discussion

4. (Optional) Flirt with the professor :meanie:
Click to expand...
👍 Did exactly everything on your list, but #4 because my professor was a guy 😀. Wrote me a letter of recommendation no problem.
 
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