On Letters of Recommendation
I would be honored to write a letter of recommendation.
If we have done research together…
Please reach out to me privately, and provide me with the following:
- Sufficient notice (at least six weeks) so that I can schedule time to write the letter;
- The submission deadline;
- Specific instructions on what you need me to do with the letter when it’s ready;
- Your CV;
- Any other relevant materials (statement of purpose, etc.);
- The rough timeline of how we met and when we worked together;
- A short description of what specific aspects you’d like me to discuss so that my letter will complement the other letters in your application package.
If we have worked together, but not done research together…
Please follow the guidelines above, but be aware that:
- Grad school admissions committees are mainly looking for evidence that you will be a good graduate student (especially for research-based Master’s and PhD programs).
- If you have worked on research projects, you’ll definitely want letter writers who are familiar with that work.
- If we haven’t worked on a research project together, I won’t be able to provide compelling evidence of your research abilities.
Additionally, since I won’t be discussing your research, please provide the following (plus the items in the previous section):
- A brief description of something that we worked on together, and how you contributed to it.
If you took my class but we have never worked together…
While I am still willing to write a letter, my agreement comes with all of the preceding caveats and the following additional ones:
- Letters are one of the most important parts of your application package, so it’s important to find people who can write you a strong recommendation.
- The strongest, most informative letters come from people who know you well. If someone else knows you better than me (e.g. from doing research together, from a smaller class, etc.), they are likely a better choice than I am.
- The best letter I can offer you follows a very generic template.
- That means it likely won’t be very strong.
- It will essentially include:
- That we’ve never worked together;
- That you were in my class;
- The structure of the course and the topics it covered;
- Your final grade and possibly a percentile;
- A disclaimer that class sizes are large so I don’t know any individual students.
- Frequently, application forms request specific information (e.g. “how do you know the applicant”, “what are their strengths and weaknesses”, “would they be a good fit”).
- I will be unable to answer these prompts, and that may reflect poorly on your application.
- For mandatory prompts, I will respond with “see recommendation letter”.
- For multiple-choice prompts (e.g. “rate this applicant’s technical aptitude from 1-10”) I will select the midpoint plus one (i.e. 6/10).
After reading these disclaimers, if you would still like to request a letter:
- You should first fill out this form.
- You should then ask for a letter, while following the guidelines in the first two sections.