When to/can I ask for a letter of recommendation?

[uaena123]

Hi all,

I just finished my first semester of senior year of university. Although I have strong LORs from extracurricular activities, I am struggling to connect with my professors in college. Though I perform well in all of my courses, I find that I still do not know the professors very well and vice versa. For example, I finished with the highest grade in my biochemistry class of around 100, attended a decent amount of office hours (I couldn't attend some due to scheduling conflicts with work and volunteering), and made sure to ask questions whenever I had any (after lecture and via email), but I never found an opportunity to have "deep" or "insightful" conversations with my professor. Is it reasonable to ask him for a LOR? Any advice on getting "close" to professors?

As a separate concern, when do students most commonly ask for LOR? I plan to take two gap years before medical school, and I feel that if I ask my professors or other mentors for LORs then, they may have forgotten specific details about our interactions. Is there a way to preserve these LORs?

Thanks in advance.

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[Catalystik]

Hi all,

I just finished my first semester of senior year of university. Although I have strong LORs from extracurricular activities, I am struggling to connect with my professors in college. Though I perform well in all of my courses, I find that I still do not know the professors very well and vice versa. For example, I finished with the highest grade in my biochemistry class of around 100, attended a decent amount of office hours (I couldn't attend some due to scheduling conflicts with work and volunteering), and made sure to ask questions whenever I had any (after lecture and via email), but I never found an opportunity to have "deep" or "insightful" conversations with my professor. Is it reasonable to ask him for a LOR? Any advice on getting "close" to professors?

As a separate concern, when do students most commonly ask for LOR? I plan to take two gap years before medical school, and I feel that if I ask my professors or other mentors for LORs then, they may have forgotten specific details about our interactions. Is there a way to preserve these LORs?

Thanks in advance.

You can ask for LORs any time, so long as you have access to a letter storage service. If your school doesn't offer this service, you might look into a service like Interfolio: Dossier Service - Academic Portfolios and Letters of Recommendation which is free until you start sending the letters out.

When the time comes, if letters are more than two years old, you might ask writers to update their letters with a new date. As that is commonly done, it is beneficial to keep in touch with your writers in the meanwhile.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Ask them for a one on one meeting after meeting. Almost all will welcome it as it can be difficult for some professors to write about a student without knowing more context. Print a resume and a statement regarding your future aspirations. Bring them to the meeting. Also I’d recommend asking over the break following the semester in which they taught.