Letters of Recommendation

[possible_phd]

They're used to it. And if the letter is going to be any good, it means they have more than just a fleeting interest in you getting an admission; they are willing to go out of their way to help you. In other words, if they aren't willing to take the time to go through the recommendation process, they probably aren't going to write you a very strong letter, anyway, ya know?

Just tell them up-front what to expect. When you ask if they would be willing to recommend you, let them know that you intend on applying to 15-20 schools, so they should take that into consideration.

[longshot]

Another option is to use more than 3 recommenders. If you have six professors, that cuts the load in half, etc

[phdhope]

possiblephd and longshot are right. I would also encourage you to closely examine the school you are applying to. In all likelihood, you are going to be an awesome match for only a handful of schools. Some might be too prestigous, some might be not be prestigous enough. Some might pay well, others won't. Some might be too competitive, others might not be competitive enough. The list goes on. Because the schools are all very different from each other, I imagine if you closely examine them in depth, you can greatly reduce the number of schools you apply to. This will save time, money, and allow you to focus more on the schools that fit you best. Not to mention your professors could easily work on 6 forms for schools instead of 20.

[dusklife]

Originally Posted by phdhope

possiblephd and longshot are right. I would also encourage you to closely examine the school you are applying to. In all likelihood, you are going to be an awesome match for only a handful of schools. Some might be too prestigous, some might be not be prestigous enough. Some might pay well, others won't. Some might be too competitive, others might not be competitive enough. The list goes on. Because the schools are all very different from each other, I imagine if you closely examine them in depth, you can greatly reduce the number of schools you apply to. This will save time, money, and allow you to focus more on the schools that fit you best. Not to mention your professors could easily work on 6 forms for schools instead of 20.

I totally agree with you in theory, but being a person in a similar dilemna it seems far too difficult to predict which schools one stands a competitive chance with. Especially when these schools are only admitting 2-4 students per year.

I know in my situation, I have good academic numbers, recs, and other unique characteristics but lack an extensive math background/masters degree/work experience. Accordingly, it seems near impossible to predict which schools will look beyond some of these 'deficiencies.' A lot of schools may say they 'prefer' one or more of these three characteristics, but the extent of that preference is not clarified.

My situation may be more extreme than others, but I figure most people have at least some characteristics that could be seen as deficiencies.

If I had the ability to contently pick 6 schools that I was most comfortable with and tailor everything to those schools, that'd be fantastic. However, I'd be much more skeptical regarding my chances of gaining admission to a program. I suppose it would be possible to accept this risk and (in the case of straight rejections) utilize the following year to further strengthen my background, but that in and of itself allows for error (ex. in my case, the possibility to hinder a perfect GPA).