Dave Richeson at Division by Zero has a post on asking for letters of recommendation (here). He has some great advice (write a thank you, decline to be able to see the recs, etc.).
Previously when I had written a post on letters in the application process, I said that it was the easiest part for me. I assumed that this would be the case for most applicants. My assumptions was that if you were applying to grad school, you worked pretty seriously with some professors and they would be obvious choices to ask for letters. And, having worked closely with those profs, it would be easy (i.e. not awkward to ask for letters).
Since then, people I know that are applying for grad school have asked me for advice about getting letters. Some took many philosophy classes but hadn’t spoken much or built a close two-way relationship with the professor. There are also people who want to go into philosophy but didn’t get major in it as an undergrad. Therefore, they have had less opportunity to build the kinds of relationships that make it easy to get letters.
Given that letters are extremely important and can be pretty influential, it is important to figure out what to do if you are in one of the above situations (and presumably others like being at a school with few philosophers). My first guess as to what to do is to avoid being in any situation but the one where you’ve worked closely with professors and could easily ask for letters. All of my colleagues worked very closely with the professors that recommended them and, I assume, had close working relationships with them. If you want to go into philosophy, there is no reason not to be working closely with whatever philosophers you can get your hands on.
If you are the shy type and have never worked very closely with a professor but think the professor will recognize that you do good work, you should suck it up and ask the people for whom you have done good work whether or not they could write you a good letter. Do not just ask them to write you a letter. Ask them if they could write you a good recommendation. Try to make it as comfortable for them to say no, if they want to, as possible. If a professor is going to write you a bad or even mediocre letter, you should get a different letter. So, try to do as much as you can to avoid bad letters. This means asking uncomfortable questions.
If you didn’t major in philosophy or for some other reason haven’t worked with a few professors enough for them to competently evaluate you, there are a few things you might do. You could audit some classes and do the work and try to get to know some professors. There are people at UW doing this all the time. They’ll sit in on a grad seminar, participate, write a paper, etc. This gives them a chance to build a relationship with a professor.
This approach is a bit time consuming and you probably won’t get credit for your work. It might also get in the way of keeping a job. So, you might also get recommendations from your professors in whatever major you were in and apply to masters programs. Masters programs are typically easier to get in to since they generate money from their masters students. A masters program can definitely serve to generate letters. A friend of mine, who could have gotten good letters otherwise, decided to get a masters and recently entered into a top grad program.
Getting a masters is expensive and you aren’t entering a field where you’ll be able to recoup your expenses easily. Unfortunately, I’m not sure there are any inexpensive ways to get letters if you didn’t build the infrastructure while you an undergrad. For those who were in a similar situation but are now in grad school, any tips?
3 Comments
Most of the above advice seems sound to me. For students who didn’t major in philosophy, going the MA route seems almost a must. I suppose there might be some people who didn’t major in philosophy as undergrads and got into good programs, but, if so, I’ve never met them. I’m a bit curious why you think that going the MA route must be more expensive. It requires doing the application process twice but the program itself might be affordable. The MA program I attended funded many of its students with tuition-remissions and small TA stipends, so it wasn’t overly burdensome in terms of debt.
I’m also a bit curious about the best way to ask for the letter. I don’t have much experience with this, but I wonder if asking if he or she would write a good letter might be problematic as it could put the prof in an awkward position. If he or she couldn’t write you a good letter it forces him or her to say that to you directly, which might not be easy. Simply asking for the letter would allow him or her to “let you down” easier through some type of minor subterfuge if he or she felt it wasn’t appropriate to write the letter for you.
Hey Matt,
Thanks for the comments. The only masters programs that I’m in any way familiar with are Tufts and University of Auckland. Both definitely do offer ways to mitigate costs but the first year at each is pretty expensive. Of the standard list of recommended programs (e.g. UW-M, Tufts, Western Mich.), which offer some form of funding? Also, I didn’t think to say that masters programs in one’s home state might be very affordable if you can get residents tuition rates.
About asking for letters, asking a professor if they can write a good letter does mean they have to tell you to your face whether they can write a good letter vs not. But, they can easily deny your request with a simple “I’m not sure I could write you the best letter” or “I don’t think I’m familiar enough with your work.” It will be a bit more awkward for them than if they only had to say “no, I don’t have time,” which they could still say, but I think it is okay to put them in a slightly awkward position since their writing a bad letter for you could cost you your trip to grad school.
One of my letters came from someone whom I didn’t know nearly as well as the others. I attended a three week intense seminar and asked one of the profs at that seminar if they could write me a good letter. Luckily, he said he could. But, I feel as if I just asked for a letter and he had said yes, I would have worried sick about his sending a letter when I already had three letters I expected to be excellent.
I should have also added in the post that you should send, if at all possible, more letters than are requested. I sent 4 with each application when 3 were required and I know all 4 were read at at least some of the schools I applied to.
I don’t know the specific details on Tufts, but I’ve heard that it is quite expensive. In fact, when I applied for programs, one person I got advice from specifically steered me away from Tufts and towards UW-Milwaukee because they thought it was an overall financially better decision.
UW-Milwaukee offered tuition-remission/TAships to some of its entering students, but also allowed in students without funding.
I don’t know the specific situations at NIU, Western Michigan, or Virginia Tech, but I did look at their websites briefly, and all of them appear to offer aid packages similar to the one that Milwaukee offers. That might make them more affordable than Tufts, but Tufts also seems to offer some forms of financial aid as well, but I don’t know the specifics.