What to Do if You Don’t Have Anyone to Write You a Recommendation Letter

Most fellowship and graduate school applications require two to three recommendation letters from people who can vouch for your potential success in the program. These letters give committees key insights into who you are as a student and as a person, giving them a more rounded understanding of what you will bring to their program, and so it’s important to find people who will speak highly of your academic or professional potential. However, what do you do if you don’t have anyone to write you a recommendation letter?

https://www.profellow.com/tips/what-to-do-if-you-dont-have-anyone-to-write-you-a-recommendation-letter/

Wow I can certainly empathize with you Shibajyoti Banerjee . This seems unfair, assuming you graduated with passing grades and no negative issues.

I noticed Gaurav H Tandon recommended an article, which essentially said:

1. Talk with university supervisor and then the university admin to get reference;

2. Talk with former professors (if you have their email, or look them up here in Research Gate or on the internet).

3. Talk with former bosses may not be good enough for a research position in academic but its worth a try.

In addition to above, did you create any evidence, outcomes, research papers, studies? If yes, did you collaborate with anyone who could give you a reference? DO you have any peer reviewed papers and if yes could the journal give you a reference or maybe ask someone to read your paper and give you a reference of that specifically.

Theses above steps would be faster than joining a new class to build new relationships!

Another approach is could you volunteer to do some research activity such as join a peer reviewed journal, review some articles, and ask the Editor in Chief to write a reference for you? That may take 1-3 months (for you to do something). I was EIC of a journal and I think if you qualify (if you have a Doctorate or even a PhD) you could apply to join it (or any journal for that matter related to your discipline).

If you know people in Linked in, such as employers or happy research clients, you could ask them for a reference, and then if they give one, ask if they could put it on letterhead?

Actually I have a 'white paper' which needs another peer review, so if you could tell me your academic qualifications, maybe I could get you to peer review that and then if it is satisfactory I could give you a reference about that work?

Hope this helps!

Ken

For the journal I mentioned, see: https://igi-global.com/ijrcm

Kenneth David Strang Thank you so much for your response.

I don't consider myself qualified enough to act as a reviewer for journal submissions.

Also, I will definitely try out the suggestions you provided. Thanks again.

Gaurav H Tandon Appreciate your kind help and suggestion. Will check out the link Asap.

Cheers,

This's really unfair and unacceptable. I'd try Kenneth David Strang & Gaurav H Tandon suggestions

Hello Shibajyoti Banerjee

I was thinking: presumably there are many individuals to choose from within that organisation. How many are there? Surely they can't all be busy simultaneously?? I would also try contacting them by telephone (call/message) if that is possible.

Dear Shibajyoti, as someone who has already written and submitted about 6 or 8 reference letters for you and filled numerous forms on different Universities' websites, I want to bring your attention to the fact that "incomplete submissions" might not necessarily mean that you didn't get reference letters. As you applied to Universities with very high competition and requirements, there could be other things they missed in the application, such as peer-reviewed papers, writing samples, detailed research plan, etc.

Apart from that, I would try Kenneth David Strang and Gaurav H Tandon advice. Recommendation letters are mainly a formality; it is usually not that important who signs them. It would be best if you put more effort into volunteering for peer-reviewing and scientific writing, contributing to the research of others, and you would find enough colleagues willing to assist you with reference letters.

Hello Evergenii,

I hope you're doing good.

Generally with reference letter, the candidate gets an update once all of them are submitted. I remember applying for a US university in 2020 December, where i requested letters from my department, but didn't receive any submission update till the last day of submission even after repeated mails from my side. Also, the applications costs around 100 $ each, which literally goes to waste. I alone just cant change the rules, when the whole world is abiding.

Top tier universities are always competitive, and that's where an efficient and supportive reference come to the rescue. I agree that you provided, but i didn't receive any submission updates from the rest on the application platform. I even had PhD research proposals approved from prospective faculties, so there were less chances that i would have been rejected had my dept supported me. Everything including writing samples , research plan etc were part of the submission, so it is obvious that i submitted.

Plus, not much of research prospects were provided to masters students during my time. I even approached interdepartmental faculties, but was denied with some naive reason ("I am not supposed to teach anything that is outside the predefined curriculum") (I still have the E-mail reply if you want me to show you).

We were 6 students in our group , and I haven't heard of anyone who had published a conference/article during the span of 2017 Oct -2019 June at LETI. Not bothered to know what happened after that. Lastly, I completed my dissertation with ZERO technical help or assistance from my faculty.

I hope that clears your doubt.