If you want a good letter of recommendation, you need to get to know us.
As I mentioned in the last post, this shows you can build the mentoring relationships you’ll need to be successful.
How do you start?
Come to office hours.
I don’t count talking to me right after (or before) class–I’m trying to get the room ready for the next person, and then I have to head to my next appointment or class. You do not have my full attention, and I might be annoyed with you but not showing it.
If you don’t come to office hours, though, I’ll just be grading papers. I could be talking to you, which I generally like doing a lot more.
Not sure how to start? Ask us about ourselves! Everyone’s a bit of a narcissist. Ask how we decided on the right graduate program, how we balanced academics with extracurriculars, etc. The person you’re talking to should turn those questions back to you–and then you’re learning about each other.
Seek additional work or knowledge.
One of my favorite students talked to me a lot; I recommended a book for him as our course ended. I didn’t expect to see him again, since most students disappear. But he read the book over break and came back to office hours to talk about it.
We built a great relationship over the four years he was at Davis, and he ended up with one of my very best letters.
Many years ago, I had the supervisor of engineering at Genentech come to my class. This happened during the Q&A:
Student: How do you know when you want to give someone a promotion?
Supervisor: Okay. You come to work on time every day and do a great job. Am I going to promote you?
Student: Yes!
Supervisor: Um, no. That’s how you keep your job. If you want me to notice you, do something worth noticing. I promote the people who want to get better at their job, the people who are curious. The person who comes to me and says, “hey, there’s only one guy who is trained to calibrate that machine, but it often breaks when he’s not here. Can I learn how to do it?” is going to get noticed.
Talk to us about independent studies. Ask for further ideas–books to read, podcasts to listen to.
One important note: there are definitely students who go to office hours too much. They seem unable to read instructions or to work without someone looking over their shoulder. They get huffy when we point out they’ve been talking to us about every word of their essay for an hour while there’s a line of ten other students out the door.
This is not impressive. And we know that behavior will not be rewarded in graduate school or the work force, so we won’t be able to recommend you.
If you’re looking for actual mentors, you may need to do the following:
See us outside of office hours.
Not everyone who writes a letter for you will also be a mentor; mentoring is the next level. A mentor should:
- be interested in more than just your letter
- be willing to give you advice and guidance
- be able to give you a helpful kick in the ass when you need it
- be knowledgeable enough about you to know what you most need to hear when you’re stressed, to offer opportunities that you need, etc.
Lots of students get letters from me every year.
Not every student has me forward job opportunities to them.
Not every student has me help them with their letters and scholarship applications.
Not every student gets invited to a meal with a visiting author because I happen to know that’s their favorite author in the whole wide world.
Not every student gets taken to a Comic Con as my assistant so I can introduce them to publishing contacts for their art career.
Not every student maintains a relationship well into graduate school, with me helping them on that first super challenging assignment.
Those relationships take time and effort, and it’s up to you to start them.
Harry Potter readers know that in the British system, students have to wait for teachers to notice them and hope they’ll be chosen to come up for a butterbeer.
In America, you have to come to us. At UCD, they even have a fund you can use. If you want to have a pizza with me and your small group as we go over your grant application, you can apply for that pizza money. If you want to have coffee with me at the Coho so we can talk without twenty students waiting outside my door, you can apply for that coffee money to treat me as a thank you.
Remember, you don’t want the form letter that someone hasn’t even proofread:
I write to recommend John Doe for your graduate program. John was a student in my Advanced Composition course three years ago. . . . Jane is hardworking and intelligent.
You want us to be able to talk about you, to fight for you:
I give my highest possible recommendation for John Doe. John has taken two advanced writing courses from me in the last two years. He has also served as my intern on x, doing y. . . . John’s work in securing a grant for patients in the z clinic will benefit their lives for many years. . . . You want John in your program; out of all of my Health Science Writing students, he is the one I would want as my physician in the future.
