Friendly Advice to Prospective Students

Somehow, I feel like giving this piece of advice to students to enhance their chances of obtaining continuous support & assistance from mentors/tutors/lecturers.

If I have to respond to the daily recommendation request from universities on behalf of my students, I will need extra hours 12 hrs a day (36hrs instead of 24hrs) to meet my daily duties as a lecturer. The mistake most students make and continue to make is the assumption that their supervisors/mentors/tutors are mandated or obligated to write recommendations on their behalf whenever the student wants one.

This assumption is false. The fact that a lecturer is your supervisor/mentor/tutor does not necessarily mean the person is mandated to write a recommendation on your behalf. Yes, the person may be your supervisor but that does not mean that person is willing and ready to write a recommendation for you. Why? The answer is simple: A good recommendation requires a lot of time and resources to complete the process (i.e., download the form, write, sign, print scan, and upload).

Time constraints: If a lecturer receives on average 2 requests per week and assumes that the lecturer requires a minimum of 2hrs to accomplish that task (write quality recommendation), that will mean he/she will spend 4 hrs per week or 16 hrs per month on writing just recommendations for students.

Notice that, most lecturers are overburdened with so much academic and administrative work that, they barely have time for writing their own papers to enhance their progress (promotion). So, now, you understand why most lecturers are not so enthused about wasting their precious time on writing recommendations. If a lecturer writes a recommendation for you (the student), know that it is a big sacrifice that the lecturer made to support your progress (academically & professionally), so the least you can do is to write a thank you back to the lecturer acknowledging his/her sacrifices after receiving the notification that, “a recommendation has been received from Dr. or Prof so so and so on your behalf”.

But what is the norm? most often, lecturers keep receiving requests for recommendations on a daily basis (i.e., random requests from both known and unknown students) and the sad assumption most students make is that, once the lecturer receives such a request, the lecturer will enthusiastically jump behind his/her desk and write the recommendation to support your application (Wrong assumption). The sad reality is that, even in cases where the lecturer spends his/her precious time writing the recommendation, the lecturer receives no acknowledgement whatsoever from the student and does not even hear about the person’s progress until the next recommendation request land in the lecturer’s email. Somehow, students have made the wrong assumption that lecturers are there to fulfil an unsigned agreement of writing recommendations for them whenever needed. This is a wrong assertion that needs to be corrected.

My advice:

1.?????Students, please make sure you have a very good relationship with whomever you want to write a recommendation for you (since this can enhance or destroy your chance in the application process).

2.?????Make sure you request & receive the permission of the person you intend to use his/her details on your application form (Don’t make any assumptions).

3.?????Make sure you keep an open communication channel to enable you to communicate the success or failure of your applications to the person including the progress you are making in other parts of your life if indeed you want that person to keep recommending you.

4.?????Establish a good friendship or relationship with as many lecturers/mentors/tutors as possible to avoid overburdening one particular individual with numerous requests for recommendations.

5.?????Lastly, be grateful. Show some appreciation to whoever spends time & resources to write a recommendation(s) for you.?