I’ll be writing a series of articles on the experiences and challenges that International students face in order to get into an American university. Most things that American students take for granted such as the ease of getting letters of recommendation, ordering transcripts, and scheduling appointments for the SAT or GRE, can be downright painful for students in India or other countries.
Today’s post is on the challenges Indian students may face while trying to get their letters of recommendation for a U.S. university.
Here are some of them:
1. Conveying the importance of recommendation letters - Few Indian universities ask for letters of recommendation when you apply for admission, so your professors may not be aware of or understand the urgency of getting these letters to you.
Solution - Start early. If you know you will need someone’s recommendation in two months, ask for it NOW. In your email, stress on how important a good recommendation is to get into a university abroad. If they do not reply in a week or so, try again. They may have missed your email.
2. Reaching out to the right people - Sometimes, people are willing to give you a recommendation, but they may not be the right people to do so. You will find that supervisors want to talk about the company you worked at rather than about you, or some professors may ask you to write the letter so that they can sign it. After I submitted my own application, I found out that one of my recommenders had made a glaringly obvious grammatical mistake.
Solution - Since you won’t get to see your letters of recommendation until after they are submitted (if at all), you can’t do much about badly written letters or typos. So choose a recommender who cares enough about your career to write good letters for you.
3. Submitting recommendations on time - Your supervisors and professors are busy people and may put writing the recommendation off even if you give them plenty of notice.
Solution - Send reminders at regular (but well-spaced) intervals. It’s better to remind the recommenders once or twice early on than to rush them at the last moment because they forgot.
4. Time-consuming online recommendations - Some foreign universities ask for online recommendations instead of paper ones. This means that your professors or supervisors have to to log in to a profile created for them and then answer a series of questions about you (eg. What are her strengths? What subjects was she particularly good at? Why do you think she is a good candidate for our course?). While this is a great for the foreign university since it reduces their paperwork and gives them specific information about the candidate, your recommenders may find this a little tedious compared to the paper format. Online recommendations take more time than paper ones and require a good deal of thought to answer. Your recommenders may put the task off or may answer the questions in a hurry.
Solution - Again, choose a recommender that cares about you enough to answer the questions well. Reach out early and send reminders.
5. Bad Internet Connection for online recommendations - Many smaller towns in India have unreliable Internet connections which make it difficult to complete an online recommendation in one sitting.
Solution - If you need an online recommendation and your recommender lives in a town with a bad Internet connection, explain the problem to the foreign university and ask them if you can send in a paper recommendation. However, do this ONLY IF you cannot find a solution to the problem at all. Be creative in your approach to the challenge. For instance, see if you can purchase a short-term wireless Internet data card. In India, Reliance and Tata sell such wireless Internet cards in small cities and towns. Schedule an appointment with your recommenders, offer them a data card so that they can use the Internet without any interruption, and wait outside their office while they fill out your recommendation.
I know this sounds rather aggressive, but if there is one thing I’ve learnt while living abroad in a bad economy, it’s that people who aren’t aggressive in a competitive market get left behind.
Do you have any stories or tips on recommendation letters? Share them here!