i have a question for people who already have or who are currently applying to grad school...i'm thinking about doing it within the next year or so, but i've got a problem with recommendations. i am fine when it comes to work recs, but academic ones pose a problem. see, i want to go to school for either a journalism or communications master. however, the professors i was closest with most recently are all italian professors (whose recs wouldn't really look that great i don't think - maybe they would?), as i spent the last 1.5 years at uva frantically finishing my italian minor. i hardly took any english classes during that time cos i had already finished my major requirements by the beginning of my third year, and i eventually lost contact with all previous english/journalism professors. then of course i went to italy for a year and became even further removed from them. i mean it's totally my fault for being a horrible person and not keeping in touch -- i was short-sighted, to say the least. yup. i suck.

but now i am ready to go back and beg professors for recommendations. my question is: how exactly do i go about this? "hi, i'm catherine, you probably don't remember me, but i want to go to grad school, and really need a recommendation, and you gave me an A in your class (which was like THE BEST class ever at uva, by the way..." plus other suck-up stuff? is this even acceptable?? could i actually get a recommendation by cold-emailing professors who i haven't seen for 2+ years? HELP!