To ask for help with daughter's master's application?

[DebbieDowner456]

Posting for traffic - sorry.

I was just wondering if anyone had any insight on this.

My dd is in her final year of a History and Politics degree, and wants to apply for a Masters in Public Policy. She's unsure who to ask to be her referee.

A politics professor would be the obvious choice, but for her two politics modules this year - as was the case last year - the lecturer doesn't teach the classes or mark essays, so doesn't know the individual students. Her class teachers are PhD students - does this matter?

She's taking two history modules this year which are seminar-based (rather than lecture + class), so the professor leading each course does know her and has read her essays. Would it look strange applying for a politics course, having studied politics at university, to use a history professor for a reference?

She has an 'academic advisor' who is her point of contact for academic/personal support. He has access to all her essay and exam marks and comments from her class teachers about her performance, but he has never taught her.

Does anyone with any experience of these matters have any insight into which would be the best option?

Hi, usually it’s the academic advisor she has to ask to do this.

Does she only need one reference? It's common to ask for two, in which case the history prof and one of her politics tutors. Though remember they may be on strike at the moment.
If only one, does she have a personal tutor in the politics dept? Ask them and they'll gather information from other staff and her transcript.

Is she applying at the same uni or a different one?

Is she applying at the same uni or a different one?

A different uni.

Does she only need one reference? It's common to ask for two, in which case the history prof and one of her politics tutors. Though remember they may be on strike at the moment.

Thank you! The current application she’s working on only seems to ask for one.

Her university seems to be practically the only one not striking currently, and didn’t strike last year either. Which is strange, given that it has a reputation for being very political.

As @Swags12 said, the academic advisor will be expected to be available to do this. But it's also common for a lecturer to ask the PhD student who ran the tutorials for suitable things to say in a reference, so you might get something like "Her tutor always praised the depth of research in her essays. Signed: Professor SoAndSo". That might be a way of getting a politics referee if both lecturer and tutor are on board.

The subject doesn't really matter, they just have to be an academic that has experience with her. Normally this is the personal tutor/academic advisor and the dissertation supervisor. I didn't really know either that well so I asked the module leaders for my two favourite subjects to do mine.

There will be someone allocated within in their role to do this, and if she goes to someone else they will just tell her to ask that person. She won't just be able to ask whoever she likes or it leads to an imbalance in workloads. It is probably her academic advisor who has this role, but if it's not they will be able to point her in the right direction.

And at MA level the course she is applying to won't care who it is as long as it says good things.

I am thinking of applying for a Masters... I graduated 25 years ago, both the companies I was employed with have gone bankrupt and I've been self-employed for 18 years. I have NO IDEA who to ask for a reference.

I'm hoping it's not that important in the grand scheme of things.