Getting a Letter of Recommendation from a Former Supervisor

Has anyone reached out to a former supervisor to ask for a letter of rec for bschool?

How do you approach this if it's been years since speaking with people, do you mention it initially in your outreach to be specific and respectful of people's time, or does that come off as too blunt? I think I would generally ask people to get dinner or lunch or drinks, but unfortunately several of my prior colleagues that I worked well with had found opportunities in different states or cities.

Any suggestions?

4 Comments
 

Wondering this as well.

I've heard writing a letter of rec takes a while, so people who you haven't spoken with in some time may not be as inclined to do so

 
Most Helpful

Yes good point, but I'd imagine people can use chatGPT / Claude AI to come up with a few paragraphs of inspiration so it would really only take 10 minutes most likely to get a general first draft and then refine from there so hopefully it wouldn't take too long.

I could write it myself and do all the work for them, they'd just need to sign their name at the end. All the schools use the same common app form so it should be a fairly streamlined process I believe.

 

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