Comment by bronxbomber92 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bronxbomber92 | Hacker News Reader

Great article, and very relevant to what I'm going through right now!

I'm a sophomore undergraduate currently looking to transfer, and I need two letter of recommendations. However, I feel uncomfortable approaching my professors since I don't have strong relationships with any of them. I find it hard since I only have a year under my belt, not allowing me much chance to get to know a professor. And since I have strong grades I haven't had the need to see professors during after-hours, limiting my interaction with them further.

Do you have any suggestions? Will professors understand my situation, and be willing to write a strong letter of recommendation based on my grades, class participation, and strong resume?

Again, thanks for writing this post! Wonderful blog :)

If you've had good class participation and you can provide your resume in condensed, bullet-point form, you should be able to get decent or good (but not great) recommendations.

Thanks for the quick response! I've got one more if you don't mind. This is a question that should definitely be asked on a school by school basis, but I'd be curious to know if it is a common occurrence as well (from your experience as a professor). I have a fair more amount of experience as a software engineer in industry than as a student; is it common for prospective students to ask schools the permission to substitute a letter of recommendation from a professor for a letter from a manager or boss?

It depends on what you're applying for.

For undergrad transfers or a terminal masters applicant, industry recs are generally OK.

For a Ph.D. student, not much more than one industry rec would be commonly permissible, unless they're from an industrial research lab.

For a Ph.D. student, a good industry rec will focus on character, strong work ethic and specific examples of problem-solving ability. Industrial assessment of research potential tends to be mentally damped by the reviewer unless the recommender has a Ph.D.

What I did was basically ask a professor who I knew had a research lab, and ask if there was anything I could help him with. In my experience, most professors have too much stuff to do, and are very open to free labor.

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