Recommendation Letters and Contacts

I had a great 24 hours. The professor I was working with here referred me to a couple people at the schools I want to apply to. I also mentioned to him that I am planning to apply to the Maryland school so maybe he'll know someone there too.

I downloaded articles from the people he mentioned and put in requests for their books. I hope to contact them in mid-August. I will also contact people I found on my own, since his contacts did not cover everywhere I want to apply.

I also contacted my potential recommenders today which was really awkward as they all have English degrees and I am looking for something entirely different, but I played it as best I could (asking for any help they could give) and one got back to me right away saying he doesn't know much about policy but would gladly write me a recommendation which is fantastic. I could not have hoped for a better or easier response. I was told that teachers know what you want when you contact them like that, but it is nice to have that taken care of. I still am waiting to hear from another professor and I hope I hear soon. I will have to contact a professor who doesn't know me and just beg for a recommendation if this guy doesn't come through. I am not above that though. My first two letters will be good. If I have one "she took my class, got an A" letter, I should still be okay overall.

I really need to get working on my statement of purpose though. It really needs to shine in light of my awful analytical writing score. I plan to have everyone I can find read it before I turn it in.

I am thinking about dropping my safety school off the list. What is the point if I have a shot to get into a better school in the future? I am sad I wasted a free GRE score report on them, but it was a $20 mistake. Better then wasting a bunch of time and money on completing the application.