Letters of recommendation are part of the American system. However, they are not, strictly speaking, either a students right or a professors obligation. They fall somewhere in between. Most professors are happy to write a few letters each year and feel obligated to do so. Students should be careful not to try to abuse the system by asking for a large number of letters. Students should weigh carefully the number they request, especially from the same teacher. Likewise, alumni should keep in touch for a few years if they hope busy former professors will spring into action on their behalf after they have left our Department.
Advice for students when requesting a letter:
1. Consider carefully your relationship with a member of the faculty before asking for a letter. Will your request put the professor in an uncomfortable position? Consider things like: Has the professor seen you do poorly in a course? Miss work? Miss class often?
2. Give the professor ample time (three-four weeks).
3. Ask; do not demand.
4. Give the following information in writing: Name of academic program or job title and person to whom the letter should be addressed. Also, give the professor your curriculum vitae, list courses taken from the professor in question, with date (semester), grade, and, perhaps, title of research paper or presentation.
5. If the application form allows you to opt out of the right to see the letter, do so. People who reserve the right to see their files at a later date give the impression (to the professor and to the committee reviewing the application) that they are potential trouble makers.
6. Give a stamped envelope with the address on it if the letter is to be mailed.
7. Send a thank-you note after the letter has been written.
8. Inform the professor if your application is successful.
The University of Dallas has announced a new director of civil rights, Luciana Milano. Milano, who has a Bachelor of Arts in government from Harvard College and a J.D. from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, began her new role on Oct. 12.
+ Read More“This is the first time we’ve had a scholarship in honor of a great Catholic intellectual — and now, within the last year, saint,” said President Thomas S. Hibbs, Ph.D., BA ’82 MA ’83, by way of introducing the St. John Henry Newman Scholarship in Philosophy recently endowed by alumnus Matthew Hejduk, MA '98 PhD '06, and his wife, Julia Hejduk, Ph.D. Julia was a colleague of Hibbs during his time at Baylor University, where she teaches in the Classics Department.
+ Read MoreMichelle Cortez-Gonzales, MFA ’20, was a Fort Worth ISD high school teacher with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Texas at Arlington when she decided to go back to school to get her master’s. At the recommendation of a friend, she visited UD, and knew immediately from the wooded area around the Art Village, the architecture of the buildings, and the faculty members she met that UD was the place for her.
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