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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?