Letter of recommendation from online class

[Nina758]

I was wondering if anybody has asked for a letter of recommendation from a professor who's class they did well in online?  I have letters of recommendation from my job, however some of the schools are requiring an academic letter also.  I last attended school in person about 2 years ago and have reached out to a professor who's class I did well in in person, that I that I thought might remember me, but they did not reply to my email.  The other professor I was considering asking has since left the college.  Prior to this I last completed college 8 years ago. The only other professors I have left to ask are only those who I have done well in the class recently but it has been online.  I was just wondering if anyone used a letter from an online class or if this seems like a bad idea to ask, due to it being so non-personal. 

[KuchiKopi]

That's unfortunate, the schools I have been looking at don't require it and some state that they don't even have the same weight as a PA letter.

Now IMHO I wouldn't like having an online instructor LOR, but if it is all you have then you might just have to go with it. I'd still try to have 3 LORs plus the online instructor, if possible.

Sorry about your predicament and i'm interested in what other people think on the subject.

Oh and if the classes were forced online because of COVID then I think you could use that to your advantage.

Edited May 26, 2020 by TylerV

[Janie55]

UGoLong I think on a similar post recommended that a person should look at any person in academics that could talk about your academic abilities, not just the one professor; look through their posts to see what they said-it was a great answer.

If you can’t come up with anyone else, you’ll just have to decide who that best person is. 

[dukkulisur]

My two cents:

Many programs look to the academic LOR to get an idea of not only how well you perform academically, but also how well you communicate and work with other students in a classroom setting (think group projects, class discussions, etc.).  This might be difficult, if not impossible, for a professor to discuss if the entire course was completed online.  I don't think it's ideal, but if it's truly your only option, then what else can you do?  Just have the professor write the letter and hope for the best.

On a side note, you mention that you last attended college 8 years ago.  I would think by now you would need to re-take several prerequisites again (most programs won't accept science pre-reqs older than about 7 years).  This was my situation, since I finished my bachelor's 10 years ago; I had to retake A&P, Micro, Chem, etc.  Many of these pre-reqs have to be done in person due to a lab component.  If you have any pending prerequisites that need to be done in person, perhaps those could be your academic letter source instead?

Hope that helps, and good luck!

[DelaneyR44]

I did this last year when I was in the same situation as you. I didn’t get in but I was interviewed, so I think it was fine. It’s obviously not ideal, but definitely ask the professor to mention that you haven’t taken in-person classes in a while and they should understand. And get an extra medical rec to make up for it.

[at1313]

It's really up to you if you want to ask this professor for a LOR. I would consider a few things: Did you interact with the professor often online (like through email) and was it professional (asking questions, no grammatical errors, etc)? Did you complete the assignments in a timely manner? Did you do well on the assignments (or if you didn't did you ask for help)? In the end, if you think this professor can write a strong LOR describing your academic performance and desire to learn, I say go for it!

I have also heard of people "pre-writing" a LOR for the recommender so that he/she has something to work off of (they can add/remove things in it), sending a resume so that the recommender learns more about you, and even setting up a time to discuss your goals so he/she has more information to base the LOR off of.