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Hey TLSers,

I want to give my professor-recommenders a token of my appreciation for help in the clerkship hunt. I am not sure what traditionally is the norm for the gift. I don't want to give the same thing to each so I'm curious what others have done in the past.

Some sort of food/wine? Just a nice thank you card?



[for mods, I'd rather keep my post anonymous just because I am still applying to clerkships.]

I gave one of my recommenders a DVD season of a TV show we had discussed and that I thought he would enjoy. I gave the others a nice ($40-ish) bottle of wine.

Um, I didn't give my recommenders anything. It's part of their job to do this stuff, and I feel weird giving people something for doing their job. I sent them thank you cards, though.

A thoughtful thank you note (rather than a cursory one) is more than sufficient. Anything beyond that isn't inappropriate, just unnecessary.

I made three batches of fudge that I split between my recommenders and their faculty assistants. No, I'm not joking.

Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest giving gifts is inappropriate - just unnecessary. If I were a prof I'd totally LOVE fudge.

Just to be clear, I also don't think a thank you gift is necessary or expected. I just genuinely felt the urge, so I went for it. Don't feel compelled to bust out the candy cookbook.

-The Fudge Guy