Professors refusing to write recommendation letter due to change of field

Question

I am a chemistry undergraduate student applying for master’s programs in electrical and computer engineering or computer science (ECE/CS). All my programming skills are self-taught so my professors have no idea about my program switch.

I’ve already contacted some professors and they are willing to give me the references. But once I said I am not applying for a chemistry degree but ECE/CS, two of my references said they cannot give me the reference for non-chemistry related programs since they know nothing about my programming skills. Those two references are who know me the most (IMO) and I think I performed well in their courses/projects.

What can I do? I cannot put too much workload on each professor if two of whom quit.

Answer 1

Your professors are in essence, trying to help. They think that their letters would not carry enough weight to help you. They may be thinking about if they'd admit a student from a different field whose letter-writers said nothing about their chemistry experience (and apparently deciding they would not). Professor's time is valuable, and they don't want to spend it writing a letter that they think would be useless.

But once I said I am not applying for a chemistry degree but ECE/CS 2 of my references said they cannot give me the reference for non-chemistry related programs since they know nothing about my programming skills.

I do not know whether you need letters that espouse your programming skills, but the solution is to:

• Tell the professors that you have already got a letter-writer addressing your programming skills, and ask them to write about something more specific, like your research experience, or go-getting-ness (etc., etc.). You have a letter that explains why you'd be a good ECE/CS student, right?
• Explain why that's not a concern, and then ask them to focus on something more specific.

If they still refuse, unfortunately, there is little you can do.

Answer 2

I'm retired now but I bluffed my way into several courses - including a Masters. Luckily I went on to get the qualifications.

If you got a first-class degree in anything, (apart perhaps from a so-called "soft" subject, I won't go into details), then this in itself is enough to indicate that that you are bright enough and determined enough to cope with studying at Masters level (IMHO).

My suggestion is that you pick one of these profs who know you the most and try an experiment.

Write your own reference, laying out your strengths, e.g. Works hard, capable of team work, but also capable of working alone, excellent attention to detail in the lab, etc, etc. Make sure that you are truthful and realistic.

Now comes the experiment (let's face it you have nothing to lose)

Send the above reference to one of the profs who has refused. Ask if s/he would be willing to send it as one of your recommendations even though it says nothing about computing skills. Ask them simply to redact or amend anything that is not true. This will save them a lot of work.

The professor can respond in a number of ways. Let's consider two.

1. They give you a straight "No". Then you are no worse off because they weren't going to anyway.

2. They say "Yes", then you have the opportunity to go ahead. Make sure you do use the letter though or the prof will resent putting in even putting in the limited amount of work.

---

Note

There are Masters and Masters. Some are clearly designated as conversion courses. They are for experts in other fields who want to add new knowledge; These courses are rather like doing a three-year first degree but in one year. This is tough but can be done - however you won't get too advanced - probably you'll only be able to reach graduate level in the subject.

Others are intended as an advance from a first degree in the same subject. In my opinion, unless you are a genius) you would be crazy to attempt this coming from a different subject. Computer science is not about having written a few C programs or any other programming language. It is about understanding data structures (trees, stack, heap etc), search algorithms, graph traversal, computability theory, operating systems, machine architecture, etc. (Those are just the first that came to mind). Already being fluent in several different programming paradigms (OOP, Functional, Procedural, etc.) is taken for granted.

I think you should carefully read the prerequisites for the course and see if you believe you have them. Otherwise think again.

Answer 3

This is disappointing but you may have dodged a bullet there. It seems from the information you provide that this professor would have not gone much beyond the boilerplate stuff that admission officer can get from the transcript.

It is simple enough to state in the opening paragraph that the referee cannot comment on the ability of the candidate to perform in the proposed program but instead focus on what not in the transcript.

Indeed, the strongest reference letters are those that go beyond repeating what’s in the transcript, i.e. the discuss the work ethics, industry, collegiality of the candidate, etc. If this professor is cannot do this, then it’s unlikely the reference letter would have been useful in the first place.

Answer 4

Computer Science is more than just programming it also involves theory, logical arguments, and problem solving. If you can suggests to your professors to instead discuss you abilities as a good problem solver or abstract/mathematical thinker that should be something they can write about.

Answer 5

You need to gain relevant experience so that you can obtain relevant letters of recommendation. This can be done by working in the software industry or conducting academic research that uses your programming skills.

Alternately, I would expect that some masters programs do not require letters of recommendation. You can seek those out.