In applying for most US graduate programs, several letters of recommendation are required (along with GRE scores and everything else). But as someone who’s been out of school for almost 10 years now, I can’t imagine how I’d come up with any quality, academic references who’d write me a letter of recommendation. I mean, I suppose I could go track down a couple of my undergrad professors but I doubt they’d even remember me.
I know I could probably get professional references and letters of rec from previous supervisors, etc, but would this put me at a substantial disadvantage?
What is your major? I think it would be OK if your work is directly connected to your major - then people at work would know about your skills in that area. Also it might be good to find coworkers with a PhD (if you can) to write the letters.
You are not the first person to go back to school after 10 years so they should be flexible for you.
What have you been up to since school? What do you want to study in grad school? Lots of people work for a while then return to school, but more details would help.
You’re probably get better answers in IMHO, so I’ve flagged a mod.
If your test scores are outstanding and you clearly articulate your reasons for going back to school after so many years out of academia, you should be fine in your grad school application. That does not mean you do not need some strong letters of recommendation from professional colleagues who are familiar with your work and your suitability to perform in grad school. Ideally the recommenders have themselves gone to grad school (or even the school to which you are applying) so that they can appear qualified to judge your suitability for the graduate program. Since you did not say what kind of graduate program you are applying to it’s hard to say what kinds of letters would be most helpful. Getting into an MBA program is not the same as getting into a Ph.D. program in a hard science. The latter program can be very rigorous and some evidence of ability to do research will be required.
why not contact the schools you’re interested in, explain your position, and ask? as Bijou Drains suggests, this issue must have come up before. The schools probably have some guidelines for mature applicants. Plus, the rule of thumb for references is that the more recent are the more relevant. How you’re doing now is of more interest to a school than how you did ten years ago.
Ask the school whether they’ll take letters from professional contacts. They should, but it never hurts to be polite.
I had the same problem applying to graduate school in the UK, I didn’t need to provide letters of reference but I had to provide contact information for two people to act as references. The school was happy to take professional contacts, who after all know my current interests and capacity for work much better than my old professors.
I also was supposed to provide copies of any publications, but I pointed out that mine are from a field unrelated to the one for which I was applying and they were happy to waive that requirement.
Schools want students, they want the best students they can get and they know that atypical students are often the best. They’ll be happy to work with you, but the first step in having them work with you is talking to them.
You might be surprised. My undergraduate advisor wrote me a letter ten years later (and I hadn’t been in contact before then). I know someone who is 15 years out and just got a rec from their undergrad thesis professor (again they hadn’t been in contact).
If you can think of one or two professors who would be good to recommend you (for instance, your advisor, or a prof whom you had several classes with, or impressed strongly in one class, or one you worked for in an academic way), it’s worth tracking them down.
At 10 years out, I think your goal should be one letter from an undergraduate professor, at least one from a colleague or supervisor, and another one from either someone in your field or from some non-work relationship (assuming they can shed light on why you’d be good for the graduate program). Depending on what you’re applying for, of course.
I got in to law school with only one letter from a professor. I graduated in 1987, started law school in the fall of 1992. I was in the military while applying. For the other letters, I got my commanding officer, and possibly the NCO in charge of my unit to do them.
This same situation came up when I went back to school and academic references were required. But in my case, it had been over 20 years since I had last been in school, and I wasn’t at all sure if any of my professors from my previous schooldays would remember me, assuming they were still alive.
I did what the advice here suggested–got in touch with the school to which I was applying, explained the situation, and asked what to do. Their response was just what you see here: more recent references are best; and so in my case, work references were fine. Note, however, that I found out later that they made sure that this permission was specific to me–this wasn’t a blanket policy that all applicants could take advantage of without asking. So, I’d suggest that the best approach would be to ask first.
If you’re applying to a PhD program, you need academic references. The admissions committee is looking for evidence that you can succeed as a scholar in your proposed field, and the best evidence you can give is the recommendation of someone who has succeeded as a scholar in either your field or a closely related one. Furthermore, there are specific things that they’ll want to see addressed in such a letter–for instance, how will you do at teaching?–that are not at all obvious to a non-academic, and hard for such a person to plausibly address.
If you’re applying to a terminal master’s or professional program, contacting the school is your best bet. There’s such a wide variety among such programs that it’s not possible to give any further general advice.
I know this advice is too late to be of any assistance to you, Jayrot, but if the mods will allow a very slight hijack, I’d like to add something that may help ohers in similar situations…
Back when I was an adjunct professor, one piece of advice I gave my students is that if they were even considering the possibility that maybe, somehow, someday, they just MIGHT give me as a reference (for grad school or employment) to let me know this.
I explained that a teacher sees a lot of students come and go over the years, and it is a big help if they have some notes to refer to on that student’s strengths years later, maybe many years later. I let them know that if they let me know of this possibility, I would keep sufficient notes to write a specific and believable rec for them and wouldn’t have to rely on memory. And, that I would keep these notes handy and not ditch them with other outdated stuff.
That was 15 years ago, and I could still, right now, write a recommendation for those students who told me that they might use me for a recommendation. I will never ditch those notes.
If you do this (which I would also recommend), it’s probably best to contact the individual department, rather than the College of Graduate Studies or Admissions Office or whatever. The latter can be rather bound up in red tape, but there are generally folks who work in the individual departments who are experienced at working within the system and know how to cut through the red tape.
Even better is to look up the professors on the actual graduate admissions committee and email them. Most departments have whose in what committee posted somewhere on their websites.
Just echoing what’s been said, it entirely depends on the type of degree. For a terminal professional masters I would assume that professional references are expected from someone who has been working for 10 years. But again, it depends on the program.
As many have said - some of the answer depends on what type of program you are applying for. But in general - I thinks it’s important to remember what the schools are looking for. They are trying to decide whether or not you’ll be a good student - and so are looking for things like professionalism, work habits, demeanor, how you get along with others, that type of thing. And with that in mind, you may be surprised how references from any number of sources can be relevant. Obviously - if you’ve been working for the past 10 years, you should have any number of colleagues who would write a good reference. But in addition to work - have you volunteered at a Charity? Do you work at your Church? Do you coach youth sports programs? While these may not seem relevant to whatever type of degree you are pursuing - a good reference in regards to your work in these or other fields can be valuable in answering the key questions about you and what type of student you might be.
You might be able to get an entry-level job working for someone in your desired field, and work there for a year or two. This depends on the field, of course – there are lots of technician-level jobs in the sciences, where you don’t necessarily need much experience. Most people (me included) use those jobs as stepping stones to graduate or medical school. One guy that just left my lab was in a similar situation as you are, and followed this path. He fucked around after high school for several years, then enlisted and used that to finish up college. After a year as a tech, proving himself to big names in the field, he’s now going on to Big Prestigious Graduate Program as a thirtysomething.
If I were you, however, that’d be my Plan B. Plan A would be to apply now with whatever recommendations you can find from your professional life, as the other posters have mentioned. If that doesn’t work, then go back and try Plan B.