salams
for grad school applications, i’m wondering who to take recommendations from? most schools need 3
i had a few ugrad professors who knew me well but none of them are now at my alma mater, they’ve all taken jobs elsewhere…plus they are in depts totally unrelated to the ones i’m applyng to for grad school…like the profs who knew me personally are all humanities profs…while im not applying to humanities depts for grad school…
my advisor is still at my ugrad uni, i guess i could ask him for one…he would prolly gimme a normal generic letter thats nothing special…coz we were a big advisee group and he dint know me personally [yeah i know it sucks but thats the way it was unfortunately]
my current employer..i interact with my immediate boss online…and i dont think she’s in much of a position to comment on ME as such…i mean it wont be a meaningful analysis even if she does write me one..our work is pretty standard and i dont think she’s gotten a chance to really know abt me…abt the kind of things she can write in a personal rec…
i’m wondering…if you’ve been out of school for some time, how much do recommendations count towards ur app? wil the lack of strong recs be a major -ve in my app?
any ideas/thoughts etc…plz share
thanks
-i
i dont believe in istakhara yaar :) Allah se jo maangna hae just maang it...i mean, why make it so formal thru methods like istakhara..seems too ritualisitc to me...i feel like such things r biddaT and make life complicated for us
Irem,
Salat-l-Istikhara
This "prayer for guidance" is often used to help in important decision-making
The Prophet Muhammad said, "If one of you is concerned about some practical undertaking, or about making plans for a journey, he should perform two cycles (rak'atain) of ** voluntary prayer **." Then he/she should say the following du'a:
Translation:
[QUOTE]
Oh Allah! I seek Your guidance by virtue of Your knowledge, and I seek ability by virtue of Your power, and I ask You of Your great bounty. You have power; I have none. And You know; I know not. You are the Knower of hidden things.
[/QUOTE]
This dua is very simple and straightforward. I don't understand how this is biddaT??
May Allah make it easy for you to get the best letter of recommendations.
irem anty/baji i was actully messing around but the above is true. istikhara is a gd thing. so far with istakhara my parents have had success always. :) but it was on major decisions nothing as minor as the letter of recomendation. :p but yes if u want to u could do an istakahar on this too allah will be pleased to help his creation out :p
Irem,
when I was applying to grad skule I was in a peculiar situation where I didn’t know any of my profs from my undergrad at ALL! That’s the time I regretted not going to prof’s office hours and bugging them… my friends who did that got some nice letters!
Anyways, what I did was that I talked to two of the profs who I thought were cool people read young profs who had just started their academic careers :) and I was blunt about my intentions with them… I emailed them to say that I took xyz course with them, got an A in the course… and have been doing well overall at school, plus have tons of work experience and am now stuck with Grad applications, and if they could somehow help me out. Both of them responded positively and asked me to send them my resume’ and come in for a short meeting/interview where they could learn more about me. I did that and voila! They wrote me good letters of recommendations… I’m assuming they did, cuz I didn’t get to read them, but I got in all the schools that I applied to.
I got two other letters from my current and past employers… and with them it was easier cuz they knew me well, and just asked a few things about my objectives etc. and blended that in with the work I did for them.
So yeah, in all, I sent in four letters, even though three were required… and this was because I had more f-t work experience than the average undergrad student and I leveraged that strength in my apps.
I'd suggest you just approach the people you think would be helpful, and explain your situation to them… they’d help – and oh! Don’t worry about which dept. the Profs are in, or what school they’re at… they just have to comment on your abilities as a student and they can do that nonetheless. I write letters of recommendations every now and then for students that I had taught at a different university.
Thanks for the reply Umar.
Do you know how much weightage recommendations have in the app, when you have been working for some time?
I might ask more questions later. Thanks once again for your advice.
p.s. I also never went to office hours. The profs I knew personally were the Muslims profs I met through the Islamic Society at events, and I'm not sure if they'll give me great recs either.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by irem: *
i dont believe in istakhara yaar :) Allah se jo maangna hae just maang it...i mean, why make it so formal thru methods like istakhara..seems too ritualisitc to me...i feel like such things r biddaT and make life complicated for us
[/QUOTE]
typical self studying reply, most of our so called educated people suffering from.
Istikhara Hadees say sabit hai WHO R U TO SAY U DON'T BELIEVE IN IT
nahi karna na karo Hadees ka inkar bhee na karo
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by ophiolites: *
Istikhara Hadees say sabit hai WHO R U TO SAY U DON'T BELIEVE IN IT
nahi karna na karo Hadees ka inkar bhee na karo
[/QUOTE]
hmm..u do have a point i guess...
You know its just k…prayers…are between Allah and the person na…and jab mera dil naheen maanTa istakhara ko, when I’m not convinced…then how can I? If it was mentioned in the Quran paak, like namaz how it is farz, then it would have been a different matter…