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What do I do if I can't get any referee statements?....help please...

I am in my final year of my undergrad degree. I've just decided to apply for a couple of postgraduate courses in the same uni that I am in now, and just downloaded the application form. There is a section in it for referees, where they are supposed to give their statements about me. This is where I am in trouble and I'm really panicked about.

The thing is I have not attended the very large majority of my tutorials throughout the three years I've spent at uni. There's probably one or maybe two tutors that will remember by name, if that. And I can't imagine what they would have to say about me except that I barely attended their tutorials and that they only saw me a two or three times the entire year. That's to say I don't think they would give a statement to me or be a referee of mine, if I asked.

So what do I do? What can I do now?? I mean this is my first time applying to postgraduate courses and I really have no clue how it works, and how this will affect it. I worked as an intern during holidays and I can easily get a statement from them but they aren't tutors and the referee is supposed to say something about my academic ability and whether the courses I choose are suitable for me and academic stuff like that. How do I deal with this problem? Can anyone offer any advice?

I would really appreciate any responses, even if they bear bad news. At the moment I don't know what to do or what to expect. Can I still apply? if I can then what are the chances of getting rejected? how do I get on any postgrad course? ...can I?

edit: I'm going to try and ask a lecturer that does sort of a tutorial but it's called a super-tutorial which is like a tutorial but lecture sized in terms of student number. I attended these kinds of things more frequently than tutorials so I'll try and see if it works but I am not sure it will. I suspect he wouldn't since he doesn't get to interact individually with students.
(edited 10 years ago)
When I was applying for postgrad I asked my dissertation supervisor. I hadn't really seen her much throughout the year as I'm a very independent worker and we corresponded mostly via email. But she did agree and asked me to email her my personal statement and told me she was going to look up my transcripts to gage my overall academic ability. What she wrote based on that must have been acceptable as I got onto the course I wanted to.

I've had friends who have also asked their lecturers for references without having had much contact prior and they got asked to see them for a brief chat to discuss what they were applying for and why, their time at the Uni and any other bits of info they thought could have been useful. Perhaps whoever you ask will do the same


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Avatar for ets
ets
OP
Thank you so much for the quick response and advice. I am sending a few emails like ivankiv did, and telling them that I will come and discuss it if they would be willing to do it. It's a relief knowing others have been able to get through.
Reply 3
Avatar for Klix88
Klix88
17
As long as you don't have anything in your academic record which might give them a reason to not want to give a reference (disciplinary for plagiarism etc), then you should be fine. Academics are quite used to writing references for students they can't remember.

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