Question about Letter of Rec

[PingPongPro]

I think this may have been asked before, but i didn't know how to search for it.


So I recently took a professor who I really enjoyed and learned a lot. The class just ended and I found out I got an A after doing very well on the final. I want to ask this professor to write me a letter of recommendation, but I was wondering if it would be okay.

Our class had 300+ people in it, which made it very hard (near impossible) to get the professor to know you. Even his office hours would have about 20-30 people. I wasn't able to go to office hours (except 1) due to class conflict.

Would asking this professor, who likely doesnt know me personally be a bad choice for a letter of recommendation? Obviously its different for every scenario, but I was just wondering people's take on this? Also, if I do want a letter, would it be necessary to ask him now, considering that I wouldn't need it till next year?

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[PingPongPro]

bump,

 

[Total180]

I think it would be fine, but I would definitely do it now, so that at least your name is fresh in his mind. What I would do is go to him, and ask him if he would be willing to write a strong letter for you, and tell him that you know the class was big, and if he has any questions, you would be happy to sit down with him and talk about your motivation to go to med school/anything else he wants to know. I did this, and my professor actually had me write a letter about me as if I were him, as well as give him a resume....and I am sure he probably just used most of what I had written for him. As long as you take the time to give him enough information about you to make it personal I think the letter would be fine, especially if you don't have a lot of science teachers to choose from (I was a Spanish major, so I had to use teachers from the pre-req classes which were the science classes with the most people in them). Just make sure he knows about you now and you should be fine.

 

[addo]

If you did really well in his class, and even then I doubt he can talk about anything more than your academic performance.

 

[mdbound1987]

It would be much more ideal if you could find a professor who you've established some sort of relationship with, even if that means you just visited his/her office from time to time throughout the semester. Like the person above said, they can't speak on much other than the fact you got an A. You want your letter of recommendations to stand out and this one won't. So if you cant find someone else, go ahead because it's better than nothing; however, if you know another professor better, go with that one.

 

[Barcu]

You can certainly ask. And I would definitely listen to the advice about sitting down one-on-one with this professor and talking about your motivations, life goals, etc.

The problem is that this will not be a very personal LOR, something med schools are really wanting to see. Due to that, I would not recommend using this professor as an LOR. Maybe, you could take another class with them and make more of an effort to get to know the prof.

The only possible reason I could see asking this prof (other than taking another class with them and/or getting to know them in some other way) is if you just need a final letter. If you have four good LORs and need a second science prof for a requirement, you could ask this professor to be a fifth LOR. I would not recommend that and instead focus on getting all good LORs. But, I can see someone needing to scramble for a final letter or an unanticipated required rec.