LoR Workshop Update
Packed with helpful information and some jokes along the way for the entire 1.5 hour, PSA hosted our annual Letter of Recommendation workshop last Wednesday with 90+ virtual participants. Dr Benjamin Cheung has been at UBC for 17 years since he commenced his undergraduate journey all the way to becoming a lecturer and Indigenous Initiatives Coordinator. Some of his research interests include scholarship of teaching and learning, service and experiential learning, cultural psychology, and student engagement. Like most of you, Ben had previous experiences as a research assistant at many labs and had reached out to supervisors for obtaining his letter of recommendation before entering graduate school. He himself has also written many reference letters for his students. Here are some of the tips he shared with the group:
- The application process for graduate school is quite complicated as it involves writing statements of interests, research interests, personal statements, submitting GRE scores, and getting about three letters of recommendations. Make sure you check whether the schools you are applying to actually do require GRE scores.
- The best way to initiate a topic with a psychology professor during office hours is to ask about their research projects.
- Once there is a professor you are interested to contact, you can simply send an introductory email (not an essay!) to arrange a meeting time with them. They’d love to chat with you!
- It is helpful to take a gap year before starting graduate school if you are financially able to; this way, you have the time to participate in multiple labs simultaneously without academic stress and commitment.
One of the more important components of the graduate process is having reference letters that speak to your interests, personalities, and skills from a professional’s perspective. Before asking someone to write you a letter of recommendation, you should first keep in mind that what the reference speaks to depends on what kind of program you are applying to so that you can find the most suitable writer. Understanding what characteristics your perspective program supervisors are looking for would help you narrow down your reference options. Each professor has different responsibilities; for example, Dr Cheung would not be able to write reference letters related to research psychology programs, while research supervisors cannot speak to your performances in a classroom setting.
Professors and supervisors receive many requests for LoR every term so they need to pick and choose for whom they can actually write. For example, Dr. Cheung got requests from about 32 students to write reference letters, but it takes a very long time to write them for each student. Thus, it is essential for you to stand apart from other people so the professors and supervisors cannot say no to you. We began the workshop by first reflecting on some of the characteristics graduate schools and employers are looking for such as being goal-oriented, passionate, respectful, organized, responsible, communicative, etc.. You can prove these characteristics to research supervisors by actively asking questions, participating in lab meetings, and discussing research ideas. On the other hand, you can prove these characteristics to professors by participating in class, demonstrating academic performance, going to (virtual) office hours to ask about their research, joining social events, or becoming a TA for a particular professor you’re interested in. Dr. Cheung shared a tip about interacting with lab members: spread out your questions and discussion ideas to several members of the lab such as the principal investigator, the graduate students, and peers so that you can get a well-rounded review without too much annoyance from specific individuals.
Because most graduate schools require three letters of recommendation, Dr. Cheung suggests you to join a maximum of two research labs in the first year, and then drop one to join a new lab the next year. This way, you would be able to have contacts with all three faculty members of these labs. You can also take a gap year to join more labs or spend more time with these commitments.
The way Dr Cheung begins his filtering process is to first look at the name of the student. If he does not recognize the name, he would pull up the student’s picture, email history, and transcript in this order. If there is no record whatsoever, he would reject the student. He usually writes for students with grades above 80s, but he has also written letters for students below the threshold (e.g. 60s/70s) if they demonstrate other potentials and characteristics.
Things to include in your email: (… = specific example)
- Introduction: “Dear Dr … I hope this email finds you well.”
- Statements about your history together: “thank you for teaching me … I found it to be really interesting, in particular I really enjoyed learning about…”
- Invitations to meet and chat: “I’d love to talk to you more about your research in … labs”
- Or go ahead with asking for reference letters: ask if they are able to write a positive LoR for you.
- It would be a good idea to include your CV and statements you have written for your application so they won’t need to ask for them in a separate email.
Once you find a candidate to write you the letter, make sure you give them a deadline that is one or two weeks away from the REAL deadline because professors may be busy with other projects and miss your deadline.
Here is something Dr. Cheung suggests you try out:
Write a reference letter for yourself by listing your characteristics and achievements. You should make your letter sound like “a God’s gift to the Earth” because only positive letters at this level are accepted by program supervisors.