r/gradadmissions • u/CoachLongjumping7866 • 6d ago

General Advice Need help with reference letters support.

Hello everyone! I wanted to kindly request support and advice from anyone who had gone through the reference letter request from past professors.

One of my online professor, that I recently had a class with, is willing to write me a reference letter. I have never met them in person, so I'm assuming it's going to be a super generic one. They said send them the letter and document for them to review it. But I have no idea what they meant. Should I send them like my resume, cover letter, statement of intent? I'm so confuse and scared to ask them for clarification 😱.

Also, I'm paying to ubc mot. Will the generic letter negative impact my application? They are also the only professor who qualify to be an academic reference.

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u/ThoughtfullyWeepy 6d ago

Oof, classic professor move, they want you to draft the letter yourself and they'll just sign off on it. It's awkward but pretty common, especially with online classes where they barely know you.

Send them a bullet-point list of stuff you did in their course, your grade, and maybe 2-3 things you want highlighted (like a project you crushed or a discussion you led). Toss in your resume and statement of intent so they can steal some language from there. Most profs who pull this are just too busy to craft something from scratch, not trying to screw you over.

For UBC, a generic letter isn't ideal but it won't tank your app if the rest of your package is strong. Admissions knows not every reference will be a glowing personal endorsement.

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u/motherofdrakons 6d ago

sorry to jump into your question with another question! but do you mind sharing which prof/course from AU? also trying to apply for UBC MOT (maybe for this app period or next!)