Keep your friends close and your friends who write recommendation letters closer

I'm prepping all my stuff to apply for grad school and it feels like I'm about to head west on the Oregon Trail. I'm getting ready to get all manifest destiny on academia but I need some supplies if I'm going to survive the journey.

• Good Grades which are the Bullets of Grad School Applications
• Compelling Research Proposal which is the Spare Axle of Grad School Applications
• Flattering Recommendation Letters which are the Oxen of Grad School Applications
  

Bullets are kind of a given. How would you kill food if you didn't have bullets? And anyone worth a lick could whittle out an axle in a pinch. Oxen however must be chosen with care. You don't want get saddled with a runt that slows you down and eats your food. You need big strong oxen with the stamina to tug your wagon day in day out and still pull you through 5 ft deep rivers at the end of the day when Timmy has pneumonia and Betsy can't stop getting bit by snakes.

Well I don't know about you, but I am through with that analogy. Thanks for sticking with me here. The important thing to gain from all this is make connections with important people who can write you recommendation letters. When I was in college I didn't do anything that qualifies as research or extracericular activities outside of normal classwork. So I have to scramble to get a professor to remember me and convince him or her that I'm worthy of their recommendation.

Ideally, I'm told, you'll want to have at least 3 references from Professors on a tenure track. The professors and people that I know well I emailed and asked them directly. I tried to express why I thought a recommendation letter from them would be a good reflection of my ability. I'm hoping this will help them decide to write a letter for me and also make it a favorable letter.

To write the letter they usually want a resume/cv and any other research related work that you have done. It's also good to let them know what you're planning to do in grad school so they can taylor the letter appropriately.

So, before you leave your undergraduate school behind make sure you do some extra work that counts as research, and make friends with some professors that will remember you in a year or two.