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My professor has refused to provide a recommendation that I requested from him and directed me to approach the head of the department.

How do I close this communication with him?

Would a thank you email be necessary?

user86986
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5 Answers5

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You don't need to reply to him at this point, what you should do is to follow his advice and contact the head of department.

You could, if you really want to, reply to him saying thank you for the advice - but this may or may not be received as you expect - far simpler to leave it and move on.

Solar Mike
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I would send an e-mail with the reply

Thank you very much for your time. I will follow your suggestion.

JRN
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    Professors get ridiculous amounts of emails, and neither expect nor want a thank you merely for replying to their email. It's just even more email for them. – Michael Hoffman Feb 03 '18 at 19:13
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    @MichaelHoffman so they expect students to be impolite? Aren't some of them way too rude already? – Andrea Lazzarotto Feb 04 '18 at 23:20
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    @AndreaLazzarotto I would consider it impolite to add to this professor’s workload. – Tim Feb 05 '18 at 00:12
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    Although I agree with @Michael Hoffman's sentiments, in this particular case I think the suggested email reply is excellent. Surely a situation such as this (declining to write a recommendation) is sufficiently rare and involves such a sufficiently onus task as to be fairly memorable? I've written recommendations for marginal students, but in nearly every case it was for a university/program appropriate for him/her. And in the two or three cases where I was not able to write anything very helpful, I discussed this with the student in person --- their plans and who else they could use. – Dave L Renfro Feb 05 '18 at 08:27
  • @AndreaLazzarotto there's nothing impolite about avoiding an extra unnecessary email. You asked a question, got an answer - if there's nothing more to discuss, it's perfectly polite to consider the conversation completed at this point. – Peteris Feb 05 '18 at 09:46
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    @Peteris, every time I asked something to my professors and later on to my customers or to my suppliers, I've thanked them. It's a basic matter of courtesy. I understand some cultures have different manners, but in the EU we are taught to say "please" and "thank you". – Andrea Lazzarotto Feb 05 '18 at 12:10
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    @Tim: Professors are just as human as Non-Professors, and as such, I feel entitled to add to a professor's workload every time it makes sense to me (questions on a course or her/his thesis, e.g., or when something is wrong), or when politeness indicates this. A small "thank you" will cost the Professor maybe 10 seconds, if she/he does not know the keyboard shortcut to archive a mail ('e' in gmail, e.g.). If the prof is overworked, it's her/his obligation to improve his processes [but not at the cost of local rites of politeness, and if so, he's not to expect politeness from me, either]. – phresnel Feb 05 '18 at 13:24
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    @MichaelHoffman Is the ~5-10 seconds required to read and dismiss an email saying "Thanks" really detrimental. Confirmation that the advice was received and appreciated does have merit to some; and for those it doesn't, it seems like an extremely minor inconvenience. It's not like a 4 paragraph email that has nothing for you in it. It's a single line. If I'm at the computer I could read the whole email in the outlook popup. – JMac Feb 05 '18 at 14:32
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    @JMac I think this is just something that will vary by individual preference. But for me, I was once in charge of 300 students. I received thank you emails for various things from at least 20% of them multiple times a week. 5-10 seconds adds up not to mention the amount of push notifications to my phone and the effort it takes to filter and delete unwanted email since I'm limited to 100 MB (really!) at my work. It might seem like a violation of common courtesy but really it's a matter of practicality. – syntonicC Feb 05 '18 at 15:36
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    @syntonicC If you're in a situation like that, I would just tell my students "Please do not send me thank you emails." I don't see how it would be bad by default to show common courtesy though. Acknowledgement of receipt can be beneficial and thanking someone for their time isn't a taboo practice in general. I don't think it's fair for OP to have to guess if it's a reasonable courtesy or not, and if the professor really had such a problem with it, it should be up to them to let students know. – JMac Feb 05 '18 at 16:05
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    As a lecturer in management communication, I teach that common courtesy is far too uncommon - and one should err on the side of kindness and politeness. A quick "thank you" email, reasonably carefully composed, should almost always be welcome and appreciated. – Jim MacKenzie Feb 05 '18 at 20:11
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    It seems the community consensus is thank you emails are appropriate: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/103467/52451 – Andrea Lazzarotto Feb 10 '18 at 18:27
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    @syntonicC: 300 Students * 20% Mail * 10 Seconds/Mail = 10 Minutes/Day. Holy Sun! But more seriously: Why do you not auto-archive/filter those "spammy" students into a folder which you check just once per day, so you're not annoyed by push notifications? And why haven't you configured a shortcut to answer "You're welcome" and/or are not using a shortcut to archive the mail? Furthermore: Why don't you scan these mails roughly first, mark each one requiring no action, and then archive all mails? Sorry, but in the time you check a single mail, I've left behind the first 10-30 of mails already. – phresnel Feb 20 '18 at 09:57
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You're over-thinking this.

Professors are people. Communicate with them however you would communicate with other people in a more senior position than you. There are no special rules.

David Richerby
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    I'd like to see some hard scientific evidence to support this conjecture. – Strawberry Feb 03 '18 at 17:20
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    There are plenty of special rules implicit in communicating with "people in a more senior position than [yourself]." You have clearly forgotten (or perhaps you are really unaware?) of how naive and ignorant of such things undergraduates can be. – Will R Feb 03 '18 at 19:30
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    @WillR You're reading one sentence in isolation and ignoring its context: specifically the sentence before it. – David Richerby Feb 03 '18 at 21:42
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    The fact that professors are people (or that the OP is over-thinking the situation) does not seem to change the fact that there are implicit special rules in communicating with professors as a student. – Will R Feb 03 '18 at 22:39
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    Honestly, "OK, thanks -- I'll do that" is a perfectly fine response to just about anybody who's told you they won't do something for you and told you to ask somebody else. – David Richerby Feb 03 '18 at 22:57
  • I agree with all of your answer except specifically the final sentence. – Will R Feb 03 '18 at 23:07
  • Or, to be more specific, I agree with the longest sentence and think the final sentence is in contradiction with it. – Will R Feb 03 '18 at 23:13
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    @WillR Given the context of the previous sentence, "special" means "specific to professors, as distinct from other people in senior positions." – David Richerby Feb 04 '18 at 00:30
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    @DavidRicherby: Right, but the question is being asked by an undergraduate. As an undergraduate myself, I can assure you that some, perhaps most undergraduates have no idea what the rules are concerning communicating with anyone by email. We've simply never had to do it before. When I say "you've forgotten how naive/ignorant undergraduates can be", I mean that your answer comes across as follows: you're sufficiently experienced with such situations that you don't even notice when you apply the rules, rules which certainly exist and which you were not born with knowledge of. – Will R Feb 04 '18 at 00:43
  • @Strawberry The conjecture is in line with established facts, the burden of evidence needs to be on the side claiming otherwise. Provide please for review an example of a professor that is not a person =P – Stian Feb 05 '18 at 13:02
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I would send a request to the Head of department, and cc the professor.

Dear Prof Head,
At the recommendation of Prof Nothead, I am writing to ask if you would be willing to...

...

Thank you for considering my request.

user86986

cc: Prof Nothead

This closes the loop: "I acted on the recommendation". It implicitly thanks Prof Nothead; And if Prof Head doesn't like it, he can reply-all.

Community
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Floris
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Another alternative could be to actually contact the HoD, and after you got the letter from him, tell your original prof something like "Thank you, that was helpful, I could get the letter from him".

glglgl
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