Gifts for Recommenders

[econorama]

I'm thinking that I should probably get something for the people who wrote my recommendations. Actually, I'm thinking I should have done this a month or two ago, but I'm a procrastinator.

If you've done this, what did you get? I hate getting people gifts that they'll never use and will just sit around their house or office, so I lean towards not getting people physical items. Gift certificates and food are my most common gifts. Sometimes recipients even get gift certificates for food. I've occasionally given people donations to charities on their behalf, but that's always risky if you don't know what they care about. I know one of them is a big supporter of breast cancer related charities, but have no idea about the other two.

Anyway, I'm leaning towards food. Maybe making each of them a batch of cookies or something like that. Then I spent time on them, which is what they spent on me. Is that a reasonable idea?

[iugi85]

I think that last year there was a thread exactly like this one! if you search you could easily find it!


...

found two

http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-econo...r-writers.html (Gifts for Letter Writers)

http://www.urch.com/forums/phd-econo...er-writer.html (How to Thank a Letter Writer.)

[mysherona]

I gave mine gift baskets with wine and assorted snooty snacks for Christmas.

Is there really no way to change my nickname? I'm getting tired of it, and I just learned that I've misspelled "Sharona".

[Andronicus]

I was thinking about whether I should do something like this also. A problem, though, is that I am taking a class with one of my recommenders this semester and I don't think profs are allowed to accept gifts from current students. Maybe I should just wait until May.

Is there really no way to change my nickname? I'm getting tired of it, and I just learned that I've misspelled "Sharona".

I think you'd have to get a whole new profile. I doubt anyone else has noticed the mistake, though.

[TruDog]

I think a thank-you card is pretty much all you need, at least in America. I don't know how it works elsewhere.

[Fermat]

What I gave my recommenders:

-For my one professor that got her PhD in Poland, I gave her a nice piece of polish pottery (it wasn't expensive).

-For my analysis professor (I only knew from taking class and meeting with during office hours), I gave a bottle of wine (the standard gift for anyone you don't really know).

-For my advisor (I have a very casual relationship: golf, beers, sports, etc.), I gave a nice cross pen.

Gift cards a great idea, but I know my advisor really well and wanted a more personal gift that I know he would enjoy.

[AstralTraveller]

I got an exclusively packaged bottle of wine for each, except for a recommender who does not drink alcohol, for whom I got an imported King Crimson Collector's double CD. I ended up paying roughly the same for each gift (yep, the CD was highly overpriced).

I called up the secretary of each professor I wasn't certain about, and asked them to keep the secret, just to make sure they liked wine at all. Then I played Santa the Saturday before Christmas, delivering the gifts house by house.

I have to say that I really appreciate on a personal level each of my recommenders, so it wasn't much of a compromise, but rather a sign of real appreciation. I learnt a lot from this people on all levels throughout these years, so this gift was the least they deserved. I really felt honored they wrote me a letter.

[loudandclear]

I gave all of my recommenders gift certificates to Amazon.com. Given that they're all professors, I thought that books was a pretty safe guess.

[polkaparty]

Wow, I'm surprised to see so much gift giving--pity, all of the deadweight loss. I think Antichron's post in one of those previous threads turned me off to gift giving.... Nonetheless I was planning on waiting until after this whole process is over to thank people.

[econphilomath]

... I was planning on waiting until after this whole process is over to thank people.

Yea you never know what those LORs really say... ! Presents conditional on admits is probably the best way to go about it.

I still will not be giving my recommender's anything but I might invite them to lunch or something.