Letters of Recommendation

[waterbox]

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Hi everyone,

I have a question about getting to know professors well enough to be able ask them for a letter of recommendation. Right now, I believe I'll be able to get one from my research mentor, but I'm concerned about the ones from professors whose classes you've taken.

Basically, I make an effort to go to office hours and to come up with questions about class topics, but I honestly do not have a hard time understanding the material. So when I go to office hours, it ends up with me asking the professor a specific question quickly and leaving. I always feel like I'm wasting the professor's time and I don't get to know the professor better or anything.

Can anyone give me advice on how I can find more substantive topics to talk about or just how to get to know my professors better?

Thanks!

 

[mipp0]

🙂

 

[Catalystik]

Can anyone give me advice on how I can find more substantive topics to talk about or just how to get to know my professors better?

Since you already understand the material, ask probing questions that require an expansion of the material covered in class. You might get some ideas to springboard off of from the questions at the end of the chapter.

 

[music2doc]

Since you already understand the material, ask probing questions that require an expansion of the material covered in class. You might get some ideas to springboard off of from the questions at the end of the chapter.

This... or find other possible ways to interact w the prof. They're people too. Why do you need an academic question to ask? One of my academic writers was a supervisor and mentor. Another was my PI and supervisor. Another an advisor and mentor. Yet another worked closely with me on a massive project to rebuild our entire Pre-Health Professions program. You don't have to have an academic insufficiency to meet with faculty. Actually, I'd argue someone without such an insufficiency is ahead as s/he can more easily pull that professor into a new project or become involved in what that faculty member is already doing. Faculty are also more likely to extend opportunities to those students in whom they have confidence.

If you think of going to office hours as a box to be checked you are approaching it completely and totally wrong. Doing that misses you enormous opportunities and will likely land you in the 75% of senior premeds who never make it to medial school.

 

[Catalystik]

They're people too. Why do you need an academic question to ask?

Agreed! Why not ask what led them to consider their current career. What did they settle at your university? How do they meld family, teaching/university responsibilities, and outside interests?

 

[waterbox]

Ok, thanks for the new viewpoints guys. I'd considered just talking to my professors about other interests, but some of my professors's office hours are just filled with people who do need help with the material, and I felt like asking them other things was wasting their time.

Any advice on how to deal with that issue?

 

[Danlee07]

Ok, thanks for the new viewpoints guys. I'd considered just talking to my professors about other interests, but some of my professors's office hours are just filled with people who do need help with the material, and I felt like asking them other things was wasting their time.

Any advice on how to deal with that issue?

Yeah, just talk to them after class to see if they have time to meet briefly. What I've experienced is that professors don't really want to spend time just chitchatting. They are open to talking, but would rather spend time working on their papers or reading papers outside of office hours. So try to navigate the conversation to more of a relevant chitchat... throw in personal stuff every now and then that relate to something that you need.

 

[music2doc]

Yeah, just talk to them after class to see

if they have time to meet briefly. What I've experienced is that professors don't really want to spend time just chitchatting. They are open to talking, but would rather spend time working on their papers or reading papers outside of office hours. So try to navigate the conversation to more of a relevant chitchat... throw in personal stuff every now and then that relate to something that you need.

This is where social sensitivity comes into play. You need to be able to identify when it is appropriate to approach a given professor and how. As mentioned if you can find things that relate to their work and become nearly as much a junior colleague or partner in their eyes as you are a student, this will take you far.

 

[HH8911]

To get to know professors when I didn't need help in the class and was understanding all the material, I would bring in scientific articles I found relating to the topic we were discussing. Like in Virology, we were discussing vectors for vaccines. Rather than going in to office hours and playing dumb like "Explain to me that vector thing again, I don't get it?!" I found articles about different vaccine trials and related it back to class. From there, I would often have genuine questions about the article, and it was a lot more sincere than pretending to not know the material from class. They were impressed with my motivation to look outside class and connect to relevant topics in the news, etc. Plus it shows you have a good grasp of the material too. All the profs that I did that for agreed enthusiastically to write LORs for me. 🙂

 

[RowBlue]

So, I'm a rower on a D1 team, for a non-science letter of recommendation would a coach work? I'm training 3-4 hours every day and those on the coaching staff are really the only ones in my life that see the time commitment and dedication that goes into this aspect of my life. If I have a good relationship with some of the assistant head coaches (most of whom are grads from schools like Cal or Princeton) would it be appropriate to use a recommendation from them? Or is this a bad idea...

 

[fides]

So, I'm a varsity rower on a top-tier D1 team, for a non-science letter of recommendation would a coach work? I'm training 3-4 hours every day and those on the coaching staff are really the only ones in my life that see the time commitment and dedication that goes into this aspect of my life. If I have a good relationship with some of the assistant head coaches (most of whom are grads from schools like Cal or Princeton) would it be appropriate to use a recommendation from them? Or is this a bad idea...

I don't see why not, LORs are primarily to expose you as a person, your work ethic, and how others naturally perceive you. Yea, most of them are highlighting all the strengths that you have as a candidate for where ever that LOR is intended to go but in most cases or not I think Adcoms can tell the difference between automate LORs ( When you occasionally meet with Profs) and when they are genuine (in your case). Again all my own little opinion, not really a competitive student by any means, so take my words with a grain of salt.