I emailed a prof asking if he would write me a rec. He wrote back, see the message below. It's been a few years since I've been in school and the majority of the courses I took were huge lecture classes. His email is truthful and I can't really argue with it. Should I just move on to someone else? Not that anyone else will remember me but I just get the feeling this one won't do much good. What do you guys think?
"I will write a letter for you, but you must understand
the realities of the situation. Let's suppose that when you
come to my office hours, I don't remember you (a highly likely outcome, as you say in your email to me). In that case, about all that I can write in my recommendation letter is "X took an
upper division Government course from me and earned an
'A.'" I can embellish it slightly if you have saved your
tests and papers from the class, but only slightly.
Given that situation, my letter would not do you
much good in your law school applications, unless you
scored astronomically high on the LSAT, and all that
the readers of the application need from me is a
confirmation that you are indeed a real, live human
being who went to the University of X.
So, to repeat, I am willing to write a letter, but
we must both understand the context in which it will
be written."
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