5 People to Ask When You’re Desperate for a Letter of Recommendation

Are you applying to grad school soon? Are you in need of references for your first job? Can you only remember the names of 1 of your college professors even though you graduated 8 months ago? Not all of us had the foresight to form eternal bonds with our professors in college. Some of us sat in the back of the classroom doing online Sudoku puzzles when we should have been taking notes. As a result, when it comes time to ask for a letter of recommendation, our options are limited.

There are some people in our lives who know us far more intimately than our professors ever could. The qualities graduate schools look for include flexibility, optimism, motivation, persistence, and organization. If you think hard enough there are definitely people in your life who can attest to at least one of these qualities for you.

Don’t give up on your grad school dreams and think outside the box when it comes to your letters of recommendation. This guide will give you the perfect suggestion on who you can ask to write you a brilliant letter.

1) Your Orthodontist

 Quality: Persistence

When looking for someone to vouch for how persistent you are, who better than your orthodontist? Your orthodontist was with you all through your formative years. He was there when you needed a palette expander, then braces, then a second palette expander because you have the upper jaw size of a chinchilla. Book an appointment with your orthodontist in the coming weeks and casually slip the letter of recommendation into conversation. But first, be sure to cram your dusty retainer into your mouth so it at least looks like you’ve been wearing it for the past few years.

2) Your Yoga Instructor

Quality: Flexibility

Your yoga instructor is someone who can honestly vouch for your flexibility. Or at the very least she can say that you always try to be flexible. Your yoga instructor has seen you come back time and time again even when you can never fully extend your legs while in downward dog. She has seen you contort in pain as you move from position to position. While you may not be her most flexible student, you have a commitment to flexibility that grad schools crave.

3) Your Freshman Year Roommate

Quality: Optimism 

Remember when you were 18 and  moving into your college dorm? You still believed in yourself and in the world. You didn’t know how anything worked but you stayed up late braiding your roommate’s hair and telling her everything you hoped to accomplish in college. Well, college is over now and you’re realizing that an MA is the new BA and that you have to jump back on that hamster wheel called education if you ever want to move up in the world.

You’re now cynical and jaded and you haven’t smiled in three years. But your freshman year roommate will still remember the optimistic, starry-eyed you from when you shared a 10 by 10 foot room with them. They’ll remember the time you threw up Four Lokos into your shared toilet but still woke up the next morning with no hangover. Ah, to be 18 again.

4) Your Starbucks Barista

Quality: Motivation

The line for the Starbucks in the school library was at least a 20-minute time commitment. Your Starbucks barista saw you powering through that line all the time, motivated to get that Caramel Macchiato. Your barista saw you order an extra shot of espresso when you were up late studying. They saw you switch to almond milk during that week that you went vegan. At the very least, they know your name from writing it on your cup thousands of times during your four years of undergrad, which is more than you could say about most of your professors.

5) Your Group Project Member from Junior Year

Quality: Organization

You remember in Junior year when you were paired with Felicity Jones for a group project? Both of you were waiting for the other one to cave and take control of the project but neither of you did so on the night before the project was due you scrambled the whole thing together. Felicity owes you for that project. It was worth 30% of your grade and you were ORGANIZED enough to pull the whole thing together in one night. You were nice enough to slap both of your names on it even though you did all the work, and now she can be nice enough to slap together a letter of recommendation for you.

Use this guide to secure a letter of recommendation today

Just because you didn’t form relationships with your professors doesn’t mean you’re not a persistent, flexible, optimistic, motivated gem who deserves to go to grad school.

Use the suggestions in this guide to get the quality letters of recommendation you deserve from people who know the real you!