Help me choose referee!

Greetings all!

I'm 22 years old, from Sweden, hoping to start studying in the UK by fall 2009 and struggling with the UCAS application so I could use all the help I can get.

Since I'm what UK call a "mature" student (hate that word, makes me feel old.. :wink:

) it's not easy to grab a hold of an old teacher that could write me a reference. Since I finished Upper Secondary school in 2005 I never kept in contact with any teachers or tutors (who does?) and between then and now I've only studied a few University modules but never enough for any teacher to get to know me.

In the end I have pretty much three choices who could write my reference:

A family friend with very high academic education. Actually a specialized surgeon with probably 10+ years of academic study. He's the one that knows me best personally but I never worked or studied with him.

An old teacher in physics from Upper Secondary School that I know will remember me but I doubt he'll have much input other than what he remembers from physics classes. I was pretty much his favourite student in physics though :smile: .

A current teacher in a very small, introductory Uni module that barely knows me. She would have the most current academic idea of me but absolutely nothing about me personally...

My personal choice is pretty obvious, I would ask the family friend, but in the UCAS referee FAQ it says explicitly that a referee may not be a friend. But how strict are schools with that when it comes to mature students and the referee is not really a personal friend but a family friend?

Help me choose, please!

Reply 1

S_D_F

o tricky, i would say a teacher is better because it will look less biased unless you disguise the fact that the friend is in fact your friend and say that you worked with him (work exp) for a brief period that would work afterall they can't validate it if you both say you did lool plus, he is bound to give you a great reference which you WILL need!

Reply 2

LH123

Probably number 2. The first one, although well respected academically, will seem to give a bias decision.

Reply 3

Juno

3.

Unis will expect to see a reference from your most recent academic work. If you go to your old school they may assume a bad reason for this - ie you have not been performing that well recently. It's also more important for the referee to comment on your academic achievements, as you're going to uni to study. If you have any personal things that you want including, you can ask your referee to mention these.

Reply 4

Nelien

Hmm, I'm still not totally convinced choice 2 or 3 is the best choice. First of all, my latest academic work (this programming course) is done remotely so I've never, and never will, meet my teacher. I've only had contact through the school forums and only personal mail she has sent me are something like "Well done, assignment 2 cleared".

Second, remember I haven't studied full time since 2005 and thus I have changed a lot as a person since then, the only person who knows that is the family friend. What do schools really look for in a reference? Isn't it more important to tell how I am as a person accurately than how I fared on a specific subject? Doesn't my grades tell them that already?

Either way thanks for the replies everyone, you really are a helpful lot! :smile:

Reply 5

Nelien

I want to give you a little update.

After a lot of thinking and debating I decided to go for number 2, my old teacher from Upper-Sec. School. I don't think my recent teacher could write a sufficient reference and after your recommendations and some more research I noticed a family friend would not be a good choice.

In the end I'm sure it was the right choice since when I asked my old teacher to write the reference he was rejoiced and remembered a lot of me and said he would do it gladly.

Whew.. Thanks all for the help.. Now just to wait for his reference and the application is on!