Graduate Diversity Outreach -
Letters of Recommendation
Letters of recommendation are another important component of your application materials.
They provide a professional opinion of your intellectual abilities and preparation for
graduate school and are usually written by a professor who not only addresses your specific
strengths, but compares you to the many students with whom the professor has worked with
during his/her career. In other words, the admission committee wants to know how you "stack
up" against all the students the recommender has ever had! In general, most
programs/universities require three letters of support.
- Build relationships with potential letter writers through your undergraduate
years. If you are even remotely thinking about graduate school, you should get to
know professors so that you will be able to ask them for recommendation letters, rather
than graduate students or lecturers. For some disciplines, a letter from an employer may
be weighed similarly to a professor (for example, business or education), but this is quite
rare in the arts and humanities unless it is directly related to graduate studies. A tenured
professor is best.
- Line up your letter writers as early as the year before you apply, but no
later than the beginning of the fall term that you will be applying.
- Determine how many letters are required for each program, and plan to ask
for one more since it is common for a recommender to fail to send a letter.
- Ask the letter writer if he/she would feel comfortable writing you a strong letter
of recommendation. If no, thank him/her and move on to another individual. It is
important that the letter be very positive.
- Make an appointment to discuss your graduate school goals, once the person
has agreed to write a letter. At that time, provide the recommender with the recommendation
form, a draft of your Statement of Purpose, and an addressed, stamped envelope. You can also
provide a curriculum vitae or résumé. You should update the recommender with your
latest academic goals and personal activities. Be sure to review the deadline together. Give
him/her a minimum of one month to complete the letter.
- Send a "gentle reminder" via e-mail a few days before the due date,
if you are not sure a recommender has sent their letter.
