Hello out there to the professors, doctors, teachers, bosses, mentors, supervisors, counselors, and advisors. If you are in the position of writing a letter of recommendation for someone, whether it be for medical school, college, graduate school, law school, dental school (what? as if!), vet school, or any other institution of higher learning, this note's for you.
There are some requests, humble requests if you will, that will make this arduous process a little better for everyone involved.
1) Please respond to our request for a letter.
Let me boost your ego a bit- you are a very special someone. There is a candidate out there who feels that your impression of them is awesome. They admire you, they feel you know them relatively well, and they must feel you're an articulate person. They love you. They need you. They WANT you. What do they want from you? To friggin' respond to their request! If you've been approached by someone asking you to write a letter for them, answer the email! Or the text, voicemail, smoke signal, whatever. Holy cow, if you hate Bob because he ate onion and garlic bagels every morning during speech class, and there's no way on God's green earth you would ever recommend him to law school, then send Bob an email letting him know you're too busy. Or that you're washing your hair. Or that you hate him for stinking up your damn classroom everyday, whatever, just respond to the email. Don't get on your mental high horse and look down your nose at the pitiful peasant begging for scraps of praise, mentally laughing about how you make him email you over and over again because you're in a position of power. I'll bet my last bagel that Bob knows you're busy- you don't need to remind him that you're an asshole too. It takes 10 seconds to respond. Here, let me help you with some templates:
"My apologies, I'm too busy right now, but I wish you all the best in grad school!"
"I'd love to, please send me your CV, personal statement, and anything you'd like me to address, along with your deadline."
2) Please write us an original letter. Please.
I know there are those candidates out there who asked for a recommendation from their bus driver because they were going for quantity over quality, but for the most part, people put a lot of thought into whom they approach for a letter. They incessantly wonder if the letter writer knows them well enough, would praise them enough, likes them enough, anything that would hint that they are able to telling a school that they are a good candidate. Those letters are important- they are supposed to describe us as potential students, doctors, lawyers, dentists (seriously, why?!), veterinarians, etc. So when you write the same letter for Bart as you do Lisa, the letter is totally worthless, and we become worthless to the school. The purpose of your letter, the time and effort that went into us tracking you down and bugging you for a reply all becomes for naught, and highly evident we should have asked someone else.
3) Please send the letter on time.
You are an awesome person- you said yes to the request and your student is beaming with pride that their professor thinks highly enough of them that they are getting a letter from their mentor! They mentally check off that letter, smile, and sit back and wait. And wait. Unfortunately, maybe they need to enter your name into a clearinghouse application and associate it with a number of potential schools. Maybe all other letters have been received besides yours, but they can't submit their app to the schools yet until yours arrives. Maybe their application just sits there forever, lying in wait like a virgin waiting for her husband, to where eventually that application becomes an old spinster with 30 cats. So for all that is holy, please, PLEASE send the letter on time.
Thank you for considering these requests. And continue to be proud that you influenced someone enough that they want YOUR recommendation. Keep up the good work, and keep on writing those letters.
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