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It’s that time of year again: students requesting reference letters from profs. Or maybe it’s always that time of year? This is a thread about why I might say “no” and why it doesn’t mean I hate you 1/n
1st the easy case: sometimes I say no bc a student took 1 class from me 4 years ago that had 100 other people in it, i haven’t heard from them since, & I honestly don’t remember them. What’s that letter gonna say that’s not in the transcript? 2/n
It’s not in the student’s interest for me to write a letter if all it does is repeat what’s in a transcript. I say no in this case but also try to explain to the student who they should be asking for letters from so they have the best shot at reaching their goals. 3/n
2nd: not so easy case: sometimes a student that I know well asks for a letter and I say no bc I know my letter won’t carry weight. Maybe I’ve even written them letters before! So why do I say no now? 4/n
It’s not that my opinion of the student has changed. It’s that I know their new employer is not interested in a letter from me. They’ll want a letter from someone more in their field, or who has worked with them closely. Again I’m saying no in the student’s interest. 5/n
3rd: the hard case: sometimes I really like a student but they didn’t succeed while working with me on a project or in a course. In this case, no matter how much good I want for the student, it is not in their interest that I write a letter. Why? 6/n
A ref letter in science isn’t a rubber stamp that says: hey I like them, hire them! It’s an evaluation of skills & experience. I need to be honest in a letter. It’s not helpful to the student if I have to say they weren’t able to demonstrate knowledge/skills working with me. 7/n
By saying no I’m giving the student a chance to find someone else to write a letter that can speak to their skills. Maybe the student was going through something in my class & so couldn’t put their best foot forward. I’m not going to tank their future by writing bad letters. 8/n
Also: for those of you profs that write bad letters bc u think that the student’s experience with u should be the only thing that determines their future: u suck. 9/n
But it’s this case where I find students I’ve said no to sometimes feel I’m being vindictive. Saying no here is the nicest thing I can do. Why can’t I just say “hey even though it didn’t work out with me I’m sure student XYZ will be great”? 10/n
I can’t base letters on hopes. I base them on facts. This is important bc in the future someone else will ask me to write them a letter to that same place & I need to have credibility to help those future students. 11/n
Once a student was so angry that I said no, I got a long email explaining how my field of study isn’t that hard at all and they were going to do much better. They wrote me 5 years later to say they got their PhD as a big “so there!” I was happy for them. 12/n
So in conclusion: (1) pick ur letter writers carefully, (2) if someone says no, it might not be bc they hate you. n/n
