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Writing letters of recommendation can be a pleasure or a
chore depending on two main factors:
- How well I know the student: it is
incredibly difficult to write a good letter for a student who has simply
attended my classes, no matter how well that student did in the class.
- What impression that student has made upon me
during our encounters. It is almost impossible to write a good
letter for a student who has hardly spoken at all, one who was disruptive in
class or worst of all someone with whom there were issues such as academic
integrity (plagiarism, copied assignments etc.). By contrast, writing
a letter for a student who was engaged in the class materials, asked good
questions, reliably turned their assignments in complete and on time, got
involved in extra curricular activities like Tri Beta or Research etc. is
pure pleasure.
Things a student can do to help me write a good letter of
recommendation for her/him:
- Be an active participant in class. Ask
questions. Come to office hours. Talk to me before or after
class.
- Get involved. Even a 4.0 student is hard
to write a letter for if that's all he/she has done with their life so far.
Employers, grad schools and even scholarship committees are looking for a
student who is well rounded. Balancing academics with athletics,
volunteer work, extra curricular activities or even a regular job as a check
out person or waitress/waiter all show that you have strong time management
skills and a healthy personality. So get involved in something: do
research, join Tri Beta, Dance, Volunteer at a hospital / hospice / animal
shelter.... anywhere that needs you. Really it doesn't matter so much
WHAT you do, as THAT you do it.
- Stay in touch. Students often forget
that professors teach lots of classes and see loads of other students each
semester. We don't mean it badly, but a student who was in my class 2
years ago, and whom I haven't seen or heard from since, is hard to write a
letter for. I can go back to my grade sheet to see what grade you
earned, but its hard to remember much else. However, if you stay in
touch... swinging by my office once or twice a semester to let me know what
you are up to and how things are going for you, its going to be much easier
for me to write that letter when the time comes
- Provide me with a resume, and as
much material about the job/ grad school/ scholarship or whatever that
you are applying for as you can. A resume helps highlight your work,
volunteer and extra curricular activities as well as your academic record
and provides me with lots of good information that I can add to my letter to
strengthen my argument for why you are a great candidate for whatever it is
I'm recommending you for.
- Write me a paragraph about the things you
think the grad school/ employer/ scholarship committee is looking for in a
candidate, and how you think your skill set and experiences make you a great
candidate for whatever it is you are applying for. That way I can see
what you're thinking and can echo and support it in the letter that I write
for you. This is not the time to be modest! Provide me with
a list of any accomplishments or skills that you'd
like me to highlight.
If you think
they're going to be particularly interested in your work
experiences outside school (e.g. med tech, vet tech etc,) tell me about what
you've done that would fulfill this requirement. If you'd like to
emphasize your research experiences, tell me
about your research and what you've learned from it.
If you'd like to emphasize your leadership ability,
remind me of what you've done to show leadership etc.
The
more SPECIFIC information and direction you give me, the better will
be the letter that I can write
- If you have written a personal statement or other
similar essay as a part of your application, please could you provide me
with a copy of this document (don't worry if you haven't... this is just a
nice bonus item when its available).
- Give me lots of warning. Life is full
and writing a good letter takes me several hours at minimum. Finding
the time to write a good letter is a lot easier to do when I have several
weeks' notice that this is something I need to add to my "to-do list".
- Tell me the deadline
for each letter, as well as the address to which to send
it, or the URL for its on-line submission.
- Nag. If you don't hear from me that I've
sent out the requested letter, please email me a
week or so before the deadline, reminding me that it's coming up.
Then, if you still don't hear... keep nagging
(politely, of course(! Its not that I mean to be slow, but as I said
before, these letters take time to write and sometimes its hard to find the
time to do them between all of the other things that need to get done.
Nothing makes me happier than to be able to write a strong
letter of recommendation for a student who deserves that letter. Doing the
things I've listed above will help me to be able to do this for you when the
time comes.
My final request is that, once I've written a letter for
you, you stay in touch and let me know what happens. Did you get in?
Did you get the scholarship? etc.
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