Application Process Tip #3

1       Ask your references early!  For me this was one of the most stressful parts of the application because once you ask them to write your reference it's out of your control.  Your application is not complete until all references are submitted and they have to meet the same deadline that you do.  You want to make sure that you ask those that can be good references for you but many programs have stipulations regarding who they want to see as your references.  You need to have 3 references and some programs require that two of the three be professors or advisers from your program.  I asked all of my references immediately after the application became available which was in early December.  This way they had about two full months to get online and fill out my recommendation.  I also made sure to ask before Winter Break (before most students did) so that my professors would have that time off to do my reference if they wanted to.  Even then I still had one reference that waited until what felt like the last minute (I think it was actually during the last week) to submit hers.