Comments on: Asking for a recommendation letter

By: KJ

KJ — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:08:23 +0000

I’m curious about asking for general recommendation letters. I will be asking for letters soon from my old undergraduate thesis advisor and another professor and a previous supervisor from my job. In the next year I will be applying for a job and for grad school for 2011. Can I ask for a more general letter for both grad school and for employment? Don’t want to bother the same people too often.

Any suggestions on how to prompt this to them?

Thank you for the suggestions.

By: ATB

ATB — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:28:10 +0000

I agree. I don’t really have a relationship 5 years out to be asking for letters. Is two or three letters from employers who I have had 2+ year relationships each such a bad thing?

By: D

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:09:42 +0000

Thanks for the advice, one question: How long after you’ve finished school is it still appropriate to be asking for recommendation letters from faculty?

By: M

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:29 +0000

ps. I found this advice from the first website I mentioned

By: M

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:59:56 +0000

Interesting and useful, thanks. On a related note, there are lots of websites and forums with advice about applying to graduate school (for example http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-economics/ and http://www.autoadmit.com/main.php?forum_id=3 and http://www.econjobrumors.com/). It would be great to have your feedback on which sources are credible, and how to use information from discussion forums when applying.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:45:30 +0000

Thanks for the timely topic. I’ll hold onto my third letter of recc.- that’s a good point about the arithmetic involved when the app only asks for two letters.
Love the blog!

By: y

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:14:20 +0000

thanks for this advice!
it’ll be very helpful when approaching professors for letters