Faculty References

During your years at UMD, it is essential that you get to know several faculty members sufficiently well that they can provide you with strong references for employment or graduate school. One of these can probably be your academic advisor, and that's another reason you should meet regularly with your advisor and/or stay in touch via e-mail. You should probably get to know at least one other teacher in your major field and ideally, someone in another department as well.

How do you get to know these people? Certainly the classroom is an important setting, particularly those smaller upper division courses. Ideally the people you use as references will have had you in more than one course. But also take advantage of office hours. Most faculty members will welcome the chance to get to know you as a person--your background and experiences, your goals and dreams.

You can also help a great deal at the time you request a reference by providing specific information, including at least the following:

Major(s), minor(s), courses you've had from that instructor and how you did, overall GPA, job experience, career goals, volunteer experiences, what you see as your strengths and weaknesses, nature of the job or program for which you're applying, person and address to whom the references should be addressed. Go to the handouts link on the Soc/Anth home page to find a form for submitting this information. There is a form linked to the Soc/Anth home page that is ideal for providing this information.