I'm in a little jam here. I need at least two letters of recommendation from teachers/professors for a program I'm looking to attend out of the country, but most of my classes have been online since I've been out of the country to begin with. I took a few in class courses my freshmen year, but they were all intro level courses with 400+ students so I didn't really build any sort of connections with my professors. I might be able to get one from a few high school teachers, but it might be iffy if I can get in contact with them or not.

Any idea on what I should do? I thought about getting some from my employer but if they knew I was planning on leaving they would probably let me go. So if anyone could give me advice on what to do I'd greatly appreciate it.

If any of those courses were challenging or whatever and you made a good grade, I would write a resume and bring a transcript to give to the professor that taught the course.

That way the professor would be able to toot his own horn and say something like my classes are difficult, only dedicated students succeed aminusr was one of those blah blah blah... this way you don't have to play the get buddy buddy with the professor game and by looking at how you performed in the class the professor should be more inclined to hook you up.

I teach F2F and online and i know the online students as well as the F2F ones. That shouldn't stop you from asking for a letter.

One thing you should consider is offering to provide a rough draft of the letter yourself (to save the prof's time). If s/he doesn't want that, then offer to write an outline or bullet points of your achievements. I always appreciate the student saving me time trying to think of things to say.

It's a big misconception that you have to be buddies with a prof in order for him/her to write you a recommendation.

Just do what was previously instructed. Send stuff like a resume, past work you've done in the class, and even a rough draft of the letter. Basically, make it as easy on the prof. as possible.

yea pretty much^^^^
letters of recommendation can either be really personal from a prof you have a good relationship with, or they can be really vague and they just fill in blanks with stuff from your resume and your grade in their class.

They're mostly lies anyway, and no one should take them seriously. I don't even read them anymore unless it's from someone i know who is notorious for being tough and refuses to write letters except for superstars.

Yea basically any professor with whom you got an A probably would be willing to write a letter, considering it was a high level class.

Do you have an adviser who is also a professor/you took a class with?

Very important points made here.

Also, when you request the recommendation, remember to work in whether the professor would be willing to provide an excellent recommendation.

I know that might sound goofy, but in my opinion you really need to do it. If you ask someone for a recommendation without asking, "Would you be willing to provide me with an excellent/very strong recommendation?", you might end up with someone feeling obliged to recommend you because you got a good grade but who has nothing specific and substantive to say about you.

Rapini's so right here. Even though it sounds retarded, you have to make sure it's a great rec because everyone's getting good recs. I remember asking my professor for a rec and he told me about an interaction he had when applying to grad school:

my prof: wanna write me a rec?
his prof: sure, i'll write you an honest, objective rec
my prof: yeah...i'll find someone else

Although it's too late for the OP, if you find a class/prof/subject that you are interested in, show the teacher immediately that you are interested. From my experience teachers fall over backwards for students who show interest in the topics the professors themselves love. You don't even need to do anything completely crazy: just communicate with your instructor, show up for an office hour here and there, and get an A in his/her class. You'll have one glowing recommendation letter when you need it.

This is a weird one:

My boyfriend's mother's best friend's husband is a professor in the department of the university into which I would greatly love to transfer. I think my chances of getting admitted are questionable (not impossible, not a shoo-in), and the required recommendation letters are one of the most anxiety-inducing parts of the process for me.

The mother texted me and asked if tomorrow, when she sees her friend, she should "poke around for a reference."

I have never met the professor or his wife.

What should I say? Of course I would love one, but this seems outrageous to even request.

^^^

I dont think it could hurt, but you cant get a recommendation letter, what you can do is get some leverage(so to speak) in the app process, you are still going to have to get reco letters from professors you have actually had.

Thank you! I know that's a dumb question, I'm just not very familiar yet with the etiquette of these kinds of things.

If he doesn't know anything about you, I don't know how he could possibly write a letter for you. He probably wouldn't write you a letter. And even if he did, it would be an incredibly vague and horrible letter. How could it not be? It's much better to have a sincere letter that says all kinds of nice things about you in a detailed way from someone completely unknown than to have a letter from someone known who basically writes: "New Kid is great. Please admit her. [end letter]"

And, yes, it is outrageous and awkward to ask a stranger for a letter.

Dude, it's not like I disagree with you at all. I just figured if this was being offered to me then maybe it's something people do that I haven't heard of. The best case I could envision here would be getting the chance to volunteer for the guy or something for a few months while I worked up recommend-ability. Even that sounds weird though so maybe I should have put this in the dating thread under, "How do I politely decline my boyfriend's mom's strange, but kind offer?"

ETA Obviously I didn't do that though, and you did answer my question, so, thank you!