I understand (and have been on the other side of this) that students somehow need to secure 2-3 reference letters to turn in their grad school applications. However, as I teach close to 1400 students in a year, I receive an overwhelming number of requests to write reference letters. This has increased recently as there are less job/internship opportunities out there because of the pandemic, thereby increasing the number of students who want to go to grad school instead. Unfortunately, as I do not have enough bandwidth (especially mid-semester when the grad school applications are also due), I am writing this down as my policy on whether I would be willing to write you a reference letter or not so that I spent time doing one where it would be most helpful. It would also hopefully help you understand how this reference letter system works and to maximize the potential for you to get into a good program.

Most schools require us to rate you (top 2%, 5%, ... etc.,) on a variety of factors. Below, I have given some of the sample categories that they expect us to rate you. As you will see, it really does not matter if you got an A in a course. In class sizes with several hundred students, it is impossible for me (or anyone who is teaching a large class) to figure out how you stand in all of these categories. Therefore, if the only interaction we had with the student is as a course instructor, we rely on your overall percentage compared to the rest of the class to rate on pretty much every category. Schools know this, and in general, do not care about what your course instructor thought about you, so it is more of a "filler" letter to make up for the number of letters required in the application. While I do not mind doing this, most top schools will not bother beyond student ratings given in top 2% and any decent school would keep it at 5%. The point being, if you were not in the top 5% of at least one of the classes you took, they might be unsure about your potential and such recommendations might do more damage than good. This is why just having an A does not matter. A student with 85% and another student with 100% both have an A. Universities can see that you have an A by looking at your transcript. They do not need you to tell them once more, or need us to write it in the letter. What they need from us is to indicate to them where you fall in the top slots compared to other A students and how you are as a person and other soft skills - Things we barely get to observe in a large class or cannot be measured through course assessments.


Here are some example ratings that we have to fill in for reference letters (as in top 2%, 5%, etc.). (Gleaned from various places where I had to do this).
Therefore, if you are interested in grad school, I highly recommend you get letters from Profs. who supervised you for research in labs or even as part of a COMP 400/396 kind of course which is focused on research where they have better ability to evaluate you in detail. Even letters from your boss at a company where you did internship will carry much weight over a course instructor's letter. Keep in mind, Universities are looking for some "personal" information on you. Something that the transcripts cannot tell them. Also, having prior experience in labs under a Prof. can often be the only thing you need to get into a grad school program, provided that Prof. has connections/known in the Univ. to which you are applying. So if you are serious about grad school, trying to do some summer research internship, or research courses in the field you like to go in grad school. Do not go chasing industry internships. Even if you need a letter from a course instructor, it is recommended that you go for a 5XX course which is intended for grad students and shows Universities that you have the ability to perform at that level.

As such, below is my policy for writing a ref. letter for grad school applications. A maximum of 5 letters in an academic year for the below category of students. Further, please let me know at least 3 weeks in advance that you need a letter so that I have enough lead time to preare a draft. It is also better that you reach out to people early Fall or even before Fall when things are not crazy busy to get a favourable response.
When you email me for a letter, please do indicate that you have read this page.
Please do remember, despite this, whether I will be free to write you a letter frankly depends on how crazy the schedules are during those weeks.