Asking a rec from a prof I don't know well

andrew1007
Mon, 12 Nov 2012 19:48:46 +0000

Emailing for a letter of rec is perfectly fine, even if you don’t know them. Not only will he/she most likely say yes, but you have nothing to lose from just asking. Keep in mind though, that since this professor doesn’t know you, you WILL get a generic LOR that will only talk about your academics, and nothing of your character, motivation, passions, etc etc.

I personally asked a professor that I don’t know at all either- I placed 4th out of ~55 students in an upper division chemistry course, so I asked. I’m considering that the weakest LOR out of the 3 I have.