Letters of recommendation and GPA question!
I'm applying for the Master of Counseling program at my university soon and have taken the general GRE and am finishing up my personal statement. I feel pretty confident in those areas, but am still anxious as can be about my letters of recommendation. I also have some questions about GPA. If any of you could help me out that would be awesome!
My program's application deadline is January 15th. They require three letters of recommendation submitted electronically if possible (there is a template used for these letters). When I approach people about writing my letters of rec, should I bring them a hard copy of the template, a link to the template, or should I ask them if they'd like to write the letter and then tell them to wait for the email from the university before they start writing?
I also have concerns about who to approach for recommendations. I went for a seminar on applying to this program earlier this fall, and they said the letters are not a huge focus for this program, and are really only a problem if someone gives you an awful recommendation. He mentioned that we should try and get one letter from a professor, one from an employer or someone who has seen us work in a non-academic capacity, and another of our choice. I took mainly online classes my sophomore year and junior year, and therefore have not met the professors who have worked with me in my field of interest. Should I still try to ask one of them, or should I approach a professor that I had freshman year who has worked with me in person? (I am graduating in three years so freshman year was less than two years ago for me).
Finally, the application asks for my GPA (of course!) and the scale. On my degree audit report it says the university uses a 4.0 scale, but we are on the plus/minus system so my GPA for the last 60 credit hours is above a 4.0. I know this is probably a dumb question, but I need to mark the GPA scale as a 4.33 on my application, right?
My program's application deadline is January 15th. They require three letters of recommendation submitted electronically if possible (there is a template used for these letters). When I approach people about writing my letters of rec, should I bring them a hard copy of the template, a link to the template, or should I ask them if they'd like to write the letter and then tell them to wait for the email from the university before they start writing?
I also have concerns about who to approach for recommendations. I went for a seminar on applying to this program earlier this fall, and they said the letters are not a huge focus for this program, and are really only a problem if someone gives you an awful recommendation. He mentioned that we should try and get one letter from a professor, one from an employer or someone who has seen us work in a non-academic capacity, and another of our choice. I took mainly online classes my sophomore year and junior year, and therefore have not met the professors who have worked with me in my field of interest. Should I still try to ask one of them, or should I approach a professor that I had freshman year who has worked with me in person? (I am graduating in three years so freshman year was less than two years ago for me).
Finally, the application asks for my GPA (of course!) and the scale. On my degree audit report it says the university uses a 4.0 scale, but we are on the plus/minus system so my GPA for the last 60 credit hours is above a 4.0. I know this is probably a dumb question, but I need to mark the GPA scale as a 4.33 on my application, right?