Engineering students & the LOR problem.

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satyad18
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Engineering students & the LOR problem.

Post by satyad18 » Wed May 26, 2010 11:23 am

Where do guys, who had undergrad background in engineering, usualy get their recommendations from.?

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HappyQuark
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Re: Engineering students & the LOR problem.

Post by HappyQuark » Wed May 26, 2010 12:26 pm

I don't know why, but I read your thread title as "Engineering students & the Lord of the Rings problem".

As to your actual question, the standard rules apply to engineering students as they do physics students. Letters of recommendation should come from the following people (listed in order from most important to least important)

- Any brilliant mind willing to write a letter of recommendation consisting simply of "This man is a genius".
- Research Advisors you did research with in a physics related field
- Research Advisors you did research with in an unrelated field
- Physics Professors you've taken classes from
- Professors from a related discipline you've taken classes from
- Employers from a field related to physics
- Employers from a field unrelated to physics
- Your mom
- Your cat
- A strangers cat

Keep moving down the list until you find one that matches someone you worked with. If you don't know any nobel laureates, then move down a step. If you didn't do any research in physics move on down a step. If you did some research but it was engineering related, include that one. If you took some physics classes, your next letters of rec should be from them. Next, you could include some letters of rec from some engineering faculty. If you can't find anyone from the above groups, get your manager from Burger King to write something. If you don't trust your manager from Burger King, then your mom is bound to say something nice about you. If that won't work, maybe mittens the kitten will meow with approval. In general, just try to stay closer to the top of the list when finding people to write your letters of recommendation.

blackcat007
Posts: 378
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:14 am

Re: Engineering students & the LOR problem.

Post by blackcat007 » Wed May 26, 2010 12:34 pm

HappyQuark wrote:I don't know why, but I read your thread title as "Engineering students & the Lord of the Rings problem".

As to your actual question, the standard rules apply to engineering students as they do physics students. Letters of recommendation should come from the following people (listed in order from most important to least important)

- Any brilliant mind willing to write a letter of recommendation consisting simply of "This man is a genius".
- Research Advisors you did research with in a physics related field
- Research Advisors you did research with in an unrelated field
- Physics Professors you've taken classes from
- Professors from a related discipline you've taken classes from
- Employers from a field related to physics
- Employers from a field unrelated to physics
- Your mom
- Your cat
- A strangers cat

Keep moving down the list until you find one that matches someone you worked with. If you don't know any nobel laureates, then move down a step. If you didn't do any research in physics move on down a step. If you did some research but it was engineering related, include that one. If you took some physics classes, your next letters of rec should be from them. Next, you could include some letters of rec from some engineering faculty. If you can't find anyone from the above groups, get your manager from Burger King to write something. If you don't trust your manager from Burger King, then your mom is bound to say something nice about you. If that won't work, maybe mittens the kitten will meow with approval. In general, just try to stay closer to the top of the list when finding people to write your letters of recommendation.
:lol:

blackcat007
Posts: 378
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:14 am

Re: Engineering students & the LOR problem.

Post by blackcat007 » Wed May 26, 2010 12:43 pm

satyad18 wrote:Where do guys, who had undergrad background in engineering, usualy get their recommendations from.?
Well to rewrite what Happyquark said in a more instructive way, your first priority is to get a recommendation letter from the professor under whom you did some physics related research like summer research projects and all, I believe you must have done something or plan to do something shortly. Seriously speaking this research experience helps a lot. I too am an engineer and I did my summer research in HRI, and frankly I think this research and my recommender's letter counted more than the 990 in my PGRE. Then of course you must be having some physics and math professors in your engineering institute. And lastly, there will be professors in your engineering dept, whose specialization involves a great deal of physics, eg: if you are from a mechanical engg dept, then you might want to take a letter from someone specializing in MHD or heat and mass transfer or even solid and continuum mechanics.

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satyad18
Posts: 233
Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2009 9:17 am

Re: Engineering students & the LOR problem.

Post by satyad18 » Wed May 26, 2010 11:57 pm

@HappyQuark: Thanks. That was nice. :-)
@blackcat: Thanks. I was thinking of the same. But needed to confirm..



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