By Nancy Snow
"Your letters could change my life." These words were sent to me
by a Chinese student whose lifelong dream is to study in America. I
met her in September 2007, just a week after arriving as a visiting
professor at Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and
Communication. She attended a lunch where I was speaking. We
exchanged some pleasantries. She e-mailed a follow-up greeting and
wished me a pleasant Mid-Autumn Festival. About a month later she
invited me to have dinner at a restaurant near the Tsinghua campus
in Haidian. She gave me a bag of shrimp from her hometown near
Qingdao.
Our dinner conversation revolved around her recent job at a
radio station and her study for the GRE and her lifelong dream for
further study in America. She looked anxious. By the time we moved
from the restaurant to Starbucks, she very delicately broached the
topic of a letter of recommendation.
I was a bit stunned by the request given our superficial
knowledge of one another. "Your letters could change my life," she
later wrote in one e-mail with attached resume and draft letter of
recommendation. "However intelligent or hard working I am, if I
have no one to recommend me, no one could know me and give me a
chance."
Was I even ready for such a life-altering commitment? I decided
to be as honest with her as I could, even though it wouldn't be
what she wanted to hear. First, I told her that she needs to secure
letters from people who have supervised her work or know how she
performs in research and writing. I could only write a generic "To
Whom It May Concern" and explain that I had met this student on two
occasions and that we were able to converse at an advanced
intermediate level in English. I would also be willing to add that
she is highly motivated to succeed in her studies in America, but
then who isn't?
I'm not so sure such a letter would change anyone's life.
Letters of recommendation are serious business for U.S.
professors. Each professor is a little different but we all have
rules of engagement. My rules are written out in my course
syllabus. With few exceptions, I will not write a letter of
recommendation for anyone who has not performed at the highest
level in my class, and that usually translates into a solid "A"
final grade. I prefer to know a student for two semesters, if
possible, but since I teach at one of the largest state
universities in the world (California State University), it's not
always possible to have repeat customers. More often I serve as a
job reference.
I remained perplexed as to why I was asked by several Chinese
students to write letters of recommendation. Finally one student
explained that in China, such letters of recommendation are not the
usual practice. She said that many Chinese professors don't have a
clear understanding of how much these letters mean to Chinese
students. They respond by telling the students to write up
something that they can simply sign. Or they don't respond at all.
If students draft their own letters (which I often have my students
do), then they take a risk of praising their accomplishments too
much. I look over student-drafted letters with a fine toothcomb in
order to avoid this tendency to over-praise. The worry is that too
many student-generated letters may lead to a flood that start to
sound suspiciously the same--in the top 1-3 percent among their
peers, for instance.
What Chinese students need are accurate measures of their work.
Professors here need to be accountable to these students.
Universities need to instruct students in how to go about making
the appropriate request. It's a complicated dance that requires
balance and mutual respect.
If students expect that one letter from an American professor is
going to "Open Sesame" an American graduate school's door, then
they are na?ve. Some students think that I have enormous
connections to get them admitted to their dream school. One student
said that the U.S. professor's letter of recommendation enjoys
higher credibility than one from a Chinese professor. I can't
understand why a letter from a Chinese professor who knows that
student's work would not be just as credible as one from an
American visiting professor who doesn't know that student's work.
"Many schools will trust the recommendation letter from a U.S.
professor," said one student. It's time that we change this reality
and build student trust and credibility of the letter of
recommendation process from Chinese professors.
Dr. Nancy Snow is a visiting professor of Communications and
Journalism at Tsinghua University
(Beijing Review December 5, 2007)
