For our committee letter from my school, we have to get (at least) 3 people to fill out recommendation forms. Because I am a post-bacc and have never had a prof twice at this school, I asked my very cool (28 year old) Orgo prof who I'm taking Orgo II with this semester for a letter. He told me today that he didn't know me well enough and that I'm not doing "exceptionally" in the class and that he didn't want to recommend someone to the comittee that he doesn't know that well. It kind of upset me. Anyone else had a smack down of this variety?
🙁
P.S. I'm not doing lousy in the class. I'm in the B range.
Although it may not seem like it he does want the best for you. The best LORs are written by people who know hte candidate well.
Regretably you are probably littl more to him than the guy who sits in seat 74 and is pulling a 'B' average. If you want to impress the guy study your a$$ off answer his hard questions in class (and raise the grade up to an A in the process. This will get his attention.
Then go to a couple of seminars you find kinda interesting and that he does too. Make small talk there. That's how you'll get the LOR out of him. Give him a reason to reconmend you. Peace.
I was rejected three times by former professors. Because I went to a large public university and applied several years out of college, none of them remembered me. But I ended up with eight letters of recommendation (seriously) and several other people offered to write them because I've had some groovy experiences in the last few years. My advice is to be persistent, get to know them, and also get some good non-professor letters if you can. You can still get in -- I did!
