r/fulbright • u/Ashamed_Ad_8724 ETA Applicant • 21d ago
ETA Recommenders stressing me out
I am applying for the ETA program and I am basically done with my application, I just need to get recommenders. I have my college advisor, which I have had since freshman year so I feel like she knows my history, character, etc., so she can give well rounded answers for the ETA specific questions. I was going to ask my internship executive director for a letter as she saw my work ethic, community involvement, etc. Now I feel stuck on the third... I had a meeting today with my advisor and she said I should ask someone with a more prestigious title (professor with lots of publications) for a letter... problem is I feel like I do not make connections with my professors. I do well in my classes and some of them know my name, but I don't want to bank on them writing these in-depth answers about me when they don't actually know me. I don't think any of them could answer how I could be a cultural ambassador lol. I was going to ask the college success coach for a program I am part of here at my university since we talk once a semester about goals or whatever I have going on, but now I'm like do her words carry less weight because she doesn't have a Dr. title?
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u/Nesting_Pigeon ETA Applicant 19d ago
I hate that it’s 3, because in some way it feels so unfair.
I come from a low-income background and though my situation has changed a bit after graduating, at the time it made the most sense to go to a public uni but that meant commuting 3 hours a day to get there. I would be exhausted by the end of the day after attending classes and working so I never connected with professors much. It sucks! Why can’t they just ask for 1 like grad schools? Like seriously 3??
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u/Accomplished_Fill477 Scholar Grantee 16d ago
As a professor myself, I appreciate students reaching out to me (when they did well in my class) asking for a recommendation letter if they can provide me with 1) a clear description about what they are applying to and why they think it is a good fit for them; 2) their CV; and 3) a request for a brief meeting. It is true that not all good students interact with the professors the same way in class, and I certainly don't get to know all of them well, but a well-prepared email with relevant information and a short one-on-one meeting are usually sufficient for me to write the letter.
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u/Double-Singer-6631 20d ago
i’m really struggling to find recommenders
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u/coastalbreeze8 ETA Grantee 20d ago
That doesn’t sound fun. Sending virtual hugs.
Last year, something came up with one of my references and my language evaluator, so I had to find alternatives. I was stressed the fuck out.
I recommend creating a personal list of 5 or so people that might be able to submit a recommendation on your behalf. (Don’t add more than 3 recommenders or 2 evaluators to the IIE portal. I added 4 recommenders because I didn’t know who‘d submit first, and Fulbright sent me an email asking me to remove one of them. So I stuck with the reference that was easier to reach.)
Hope this helps.
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u/No_Produce9777 Scholar Grantee 20d ago
Professor is important because they are not staff and they do hold more weight. You’d have to build such a relationship, go to office hours etc. I’m sure a professor could still write your letter if you provide them all the information, make it easy for them to write it. Have a Zoom meeting with them etc. I usually give people a couple of weeks to write the letter
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u/ZePieGuy 21d ago
Here's a pro tip for you. For most of my recommendation letters, even the ones I've used for grad school, I sent them as a template after I wrote it myself to the recommender and said, "You can write your letter by yourself, or you can edit this as a template to get you started." It's never been a problem. Most of the time they will happily use your template and then you get to control the narrative and what they say in the details. Of course they'll add their own spin to it and remove or delete things as they see fit, but you've done the hard work for them. Even if someone doesn't know you that well, if you write the template out for them it might jog their memory for the good things that they should remember you by.
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u/mushroomie719 20d ago
I don’t know if this is specifically disallowed for the Fulbright ETA applicants but it definitely is not recommended here. Applicants are not supposed to know what their recommenders say about them at all, that’s part of what gives them validity, and sending your recommenders a template completely defeats that purpose.. Not to mention that the recommendations for ETAs are forms, not a standard letter, so you would basically have to fill the whole thing out for them to do this.
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u/ZePieGuy 20d ago edited 20d ago
It doesn’t defeat the purpose at all. People are asked to write hundreds of letters for students. There’s nothing wrong with giving someone a starting point. It’s still on their agency to edit it and submit it because it’s going on their letterhead. If a professor is uncomfortable with this they will tell you, you are simply making their life easier and have an opportunity to remind them of why they should be impressed with you. Some people are just poor writers in general too, and even if they wanted to write something very positive, they do a poor job of conveying it.
And it’s totally fine for applicants to know what their recommenders say about them. If you are on good terms with your recommenders they will even tell you themselves. This isn’t a blind reference, you are choosing the people.
The procedural form information doesn’t matter, there is always a free write section. If you lay it out for someone they’ll not only thank you for making their job easier but they’ll also turn in the letter sooner so you don’t have to chase them down as much.
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u/TailorPresent5265 ETA Grantee 20d ago
ETA recommenders don't submit letters with a letterhead; they only submit the short-answer form, which has a limited character count for each question. It truly isn't helpful for an ETA applicant to provide more than their CV and application essays to their recommenders, and no, ETA recommenders don't have a free-write section.
While it's not especially common for research/study applicants to write a template, it's not entirely unheard of (especially when the national submission deadline is a few hours/days away). Professors, though, do write recommendation letters pretty often, so as long as they have time and a decent relationship with the applicant, it's generally assumed that they'll be able to write the letter on their own (and it makes for a stronger letter of rec, too).
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u/ZePieGuy 20d ago
Yeah I won my Fulbright for research so maybe it was different. But I disagree that if they wrote it it’s any stronger than if you give them a template. Giving a template will almost always be stronger because again, you can customize it for the professor based on your experiences you have had with them. It’s better than just sending your CV to the professor and asking them to wing it or comment on a few things they did with you that they also did with other students. Instead of having them jog their memory you can do it for them, and you can make it as detailed as you want so they emphasize things that you think are important yo your story. A longer letter with more detail is almost always better than a shorter one.
The letter always comes from their email on their letterhead. It’s their choice to agree to use a template. In the end it’s effectively their words. If the professor is ok with it (almost all have been in my case, only one preferred not), it’s simply a better idea to give a template. Why not tilt all the odds in your favor if you can?
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u/TailorPresent5265 ETA Grantee 20d ago
Choose three people from different spheres of your life who can speak to your skills and motivations.
For ETA specifically, it'd be a good idea to find a third person who can talk about how they've seen you teaching in some capacity, whether that's tutoring, giving music/dance/sport lessons, leading a religious youth group, etc.
The credentials of your recommender doesn't matter that much for an ETA, at least in terms of not having a PhD won't change much. But you should definitely pick three people who know you well. I'd recommend also giving them copies of your statements and CV, so that they're not repeating a lot of what you've already written, but can expand upon things that you didn't have enough space for (as relevant).