Letters of Recommendation Question

[jdawgg]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hello! I am a non-traditional student applying for several ma/psyd counseling programs, some of which require four letters of recommendation. I graduated from UG in Fall of 2003 and have had no contact with my professors since then as I never imagined I would go to grad school. Right now I have one letter from a previous supervisor in an unrelated field, one letter from a volunteer coordinator LCSW, and one very good letter from an unpaid ra experience. I have the possibility of getting another recommendation letter from a second volunteer experience or petitioning my old profs who probably don't remember me. Or both. Do you believe it would be appropriate to seek out letters from my UG profs? Or is five years+ too much time to request such a thing? Eek!

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Anthockey00]

Great question. I recommend you email the admission personnel of a few of the schools you plan to apply to. And I would ask them exactly what they would prefer you to do.

I have emailed several admission offices for some Psy.D and Ph.D programs. I needed to ask them if they had specific requirements/forms for LoR (because some school websites have detailed info while others don't). So far, two of the schools sent me the information I requested and additional inside information about their program and application process.

Give it a shot, if anything you are asking the source.

-A

 

[JockNerd]

Hello! I am a non-traditional student applying for several ma/psyd counseling programs, some of which require four letters of recommendation. I graduated from UG in Fall of 2003 and have had no contact with my professors since then as I never imagined I would go to grad school. Right now I have one letter from a previous supervisor in an unrelated field, one letter from a volunteer coordinator LCSW, and one very good letter from an unpaid ra experience. I have the possibility of getting another recommendation letter from a second volunteer experience or petitioning my old profs who probably don't remember me. Or both. Do you believe it would be appropriate to seek out letters from my UG profs? Or is five years+ too much time to request such a thing? Eek!

Thanks so much for your help!

Did you do any research with any of those profs? If so, definitely ask. The worst that can happen is that they say they feel it's been too long. If they're enthusiastic about doing it, go with it! Good luck! 🙂

The RA letter is the important one. What's that "supervisor from an unrelated field"?

 

[blindblonde]

I would definitely ask your UG profs. You've graduated within the last five years, and professors often get requests for letters from recent graduates. From what I have heard about LoRs, schools typically prefer letters from professors (particularly those who know you well or those with whom you have conducted research). Past supervisors are great as well, but professors went through the rigors of Ph.D. programs (even if not in psych) and can understand the demands of academic work. They can "size you up" in a sense, and can draft a letter tailored to the qualities that you have to succeed in graduate school. Of course there are exceptions, but generally speaking, I would ask professors. As someone else said, the worst thing they could say is no.

 

[jdawgg]

Thanks so much for your help! You've all given me the confidence to contact some of my former professors. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I receive positive responses!

 

[psychRA]

I was in a nearly identical situation when I applied! I graduated in 03 and hadn't had close relationships with any of my UG profs, though I had 3 supervisers from my RA job who were willing to write me letters. To make things worse, I didn't even major in psych, and was an unimpressive student, so you're probably in a better position than I was. This is the advice that I got from several different people: even if you graduated a few years a go, it's still really important to have at least 1 letter from UG. If you don't, it may raise a red flag that you don't have anyone who can vouch for you from that time period. In the absolute worse case scenario (this happened to a colleague of mine the first time he applied) programs may wonder if you're hiding something. Others may disagree, but like I said, I got this advice from researchers who have been helping RAs through this process for years.

The good news is that your UG prof doesn't have to write anything amazing, since you already have 3 people who know you well and will write you excellent letters! What I did was write to my UG adviser and explain that I already had LORs from people who knew me currently, but that I was looking for an UG LOR to round out my application. I acknowledged that I hadn't been a memorable student, but asked if she would feel comfortable writing a very basic letter to confirm that a. I took her class and b. I did well in it (I sent her my transcript to back this up). That's all I needed, so she agreed to write the letter. If you decide to do this, I recommend that you also send your UG prof your CV and personal statement - as it turned out, my prof told me that she actually ended up writing me a better letter based on the strength of those materials.

Again, everyone's experience will be different, and others may have very different advice. I'm just telling you what worked for me. Based on what you've told us, it sounds like you've got a very competitive application and will be a strong candidate when you apply. Best of luck to you!