Would you write a recommendation for a student you don’t know well and/or who performed poorly in your class? Most people would say no.
Conventional wisdom is that most useful references (for just about any job) come from someone who (a) knows the candidate well, (b) can evaluate how the candidate compares to his or her peers, and (c) supports any claims (“great writer,” “careful thinker,” etc.) with specific examples based on first-hand knowledge. Other chestnuts include that one should decline to serve as a reference unless one has something positive to say about a candidate, and, if declining, say something vague like, “I’m probably not the best person to write a recommendation for you.” I generally agree with all of these statements. They amount, in my mind, to a loose set of “best practices” for faculty members who are asked on a regular basis to recommend students for jobs, clerkships, fellowships and the like.
Faculty members who teach big classes inevitably will be asked for a recommendation by a student who is a (relative) stranger or a poor performer. Can the professor ethically agree to serve as a recommender? Should the professor? I think that the answer to both questions is yes, if the faculty member is willing to dig a little deeper with the student, and the student is willing to put in the time.
I admit that sometimes I’d rather say no to a recommendation request than to have a 30 minute meeting with a student who never made an effort to talk to me (and vice versa) until that moment. It is tempting to cut corners. But I try to remember that most students don’t ask for references from a faculty member in whose classes they’ve performed poorly. Nor do most students ask for references from a faculty member they’ve never spoken to outside of class before then. The student wishes he or she had other options, too. Writing recommendations — for these students, too – is part of my job, after all.
For those faced with a request from a not-so-good student who won't take "no" for an answer, there's always the intentionally ambiguous recommendation, e.g. "I cannot recommend this person highly enough" or "nobody would be better for the job" (more examples here: http://goo.gl/NFMD2). I've never actually been mean enough to send one, but I've been tempted once or twice.
I like your attitude, Bridget. I also think we owe it to our students to be honest about what kind of recommendation we would write for them. A few times I have been asked to write a recommendation for a federal clerkship by students who I know and like but who have not done well in my classes. I told the students what I would say about them — that I would have good things to say about their personality and other intangibles but I would not be able to speak glowingly about their academic abilities. I further explained that federal judges would be looking for a discussion of their academic abilities and a letter without such a discussion would not help them much and might actually hurt them. Most students understood and said they would ask somebody else. One student now hates me.
If I read "I cannot recommend this person highly enough" or "nobody would be better for the job", I would not realize that they are intentionally ambiguous. I would assume they were being extremely positive.
One more thought, and more relevant to the post. I tend to be *more* willing to write a recommendation for a student who has done poorly in my class rather than less willing. The grade speaks for itself: You don't need a professor to tell you what an "A" means. It's not like I'm going to pull out that student's exam and comment on exactly what it said. As a result, I don't think the student's grade in the class really makes a difference. Instead, I think the most useful recommendations are recommendations written for students who are good students, and who I think are fantastic, but who did poorly in my class. I can explain to the employer why that low grade shouldn't stop them from hiring the great applicant.
BTW — Hey, Ben, is that you from Wilmer, Summer Class of 1997?
I regularly tell students that they should ask for references from those capable of writing the best letters, rather than professors they know best. If a student has not received at least an A-, I press them as to whether another reference might be stronger.
Hi, Bridget — I was interested that you wrote that most professors would say no to writing a letter for a student that hadn't performed all that well. If it's a letter for some kind of legal practice work, my answer is always yes, though I qualify by saying that I can't write glowing things about the student's academic performance, but want to know more about the student's interests, background, and goals, so that I can include those things in the letter.
I always say yes because students who haven't performed so well still need our help in getting work. In fact, they need it more than students who do well, and I very much agree with you that it as an important part of our job to help the lower performing students as we can (maybe you would not go this far). I have a different approach for clerkship applications (and I guess it'd be the same policy if someone asked me for a letter for the DOJ honors program, or something like that, which no one has yet), where I do turn people down.
In my mind you are the best*_*
Yes, it is me, Orin. It took me a while to figure out that you had the best legal job in the world but here I am. I look forward to catching up.
And on the substance of your post, I don't disagree. I have often written enthusiastic recommendations for students who have not gotten an A in my class and said things in the letter along the lines that you suggested: don't overlook this applicant just because they don't have X GPA. But there are limits: I generally won't tell a federal judge that a student who got a C from me (or, in one case, multiple Cs) has the academic chops to perform well as a clerk.