Updated: Monday, November 4, 2024
By Indhika, IvyWise Graduate Admissions Counselor
While graduate admissions committees read A LOT of recommendation letters that often sound very much alike, some recommendation letters truly stand out and enhance an applicant’s profile. It’s important to ensure that your recommendation letters add value and depth to your graduate school application.
Many graduate programs require three letters of recommendation as part of their application process. Recommendation letters are the only part of your application that you will not be able to review and, as such, it is important to identify recommendation providers that will most compellingly capture your skills, achievements, personal attributes, and potential contributions to the school you are applying to and field you are building a career in.
Choosing the right people to write letters of recommendation for grad school is crucial. Professors or academic advisors can speak to your academic abilities and potential for success in graduate school. Research supervisors can highlight your research and critical thinking skills. Professional mentors or supervisors can provide a strong recommendation about your work ethic, skills, and professional achievements.
It’s important to foster relationships with teachers, supervisors, and other potential letter writers so they can get to know you well and speak to your character as well as your knowledge and skills.
A good graduate school recommendation letter should include a salutation and a polite sign-off as well as these details:
A typical graduate recommendation letter should be about a page long; however, it’s more important to follow any guidelines provided by the graduate school as to the length of the letters. While the letter should be focused and detailed, conciseness is also key.
Recommendation letter writers should not just know you well, but they should know the BEST things about you — academically, professionally, and personally. And they should have worked with you in either an academic or professional context.
Academically, identify professors who have taught classes you have excelled in and have a good relationship with you. While you may have worked closely with teaching assistants or instructors, it is important that your academic recommendation letters come from someone with the title of professor.
For professional recommendations, focus on supervisors who have overseen your most successful projects — the ones where you have exceeded expectations, demonstrated strong leadership skills, and exhibited effective collaborative and collegial skills. In some instances, a colleague may be a good choice as well, especially if they have earned the advanced degree you are seeking and worked closely with you on projects that highlighted your strengths and skills in relation to this.
While it may be tempting to ask for a recommendation from someone who knows you personally and has a very high opinion of you, this can be detrimental to your application. Admissions committees are looking for academic and professional letters that confirm your background and experience while also sharing the unique and valuable personal qualities that make you shine.
Academic letters of recommendation should highlight skills, such as critical thinking, writing, research, and quantitative skills. Professional recommendation letters will touch on these aspects but will also elaborate on qualities like leadership, management style, teamwork, collaboration, and initiative.
A good rule of thumb is to have a combination of letters from professors and supervisors that reflect the amount of your post-undergraduate work experience. For example, if you have four years of work experience, and have had more than one supervisor or job, you may submit two letters of recommendation from your supervisors and one letter of recommendation from a professor.
That said, if you cannot submit letters in a balanced combination, think about how you might present a strong balance of academic skills and professional qualities. For example, if you do not have any work or internship experience, you may focus on your strong academic record. In this case, you can submit three letters from professors. Ensure that at least one speaks to your professional skills such as leadership, collaboration, management, and initiative.
Alternately, if you have been working for many years and cannot submit a letter of recommendation from a professor, you must ensure that at least one recommendation speaks to your academic skills, such as critical thinking, writing, and research.
Put simply, if you know someone famous but they don’t really know you, don’t ask them for a letter of recommendation. If you have a famous family friend who does not know you academically or professionally, don’t ask them. If you work in the office of a famous politician but barely interact with them, don’t ask them. There are some instances where you might submit a supplemental letter if it truly adds value to your application and this can be discussed on a case-by-case basis.
While you are an undergraduate, take time to cultivate strong mentorships with professors. If you love a subject and excel in a class, attend office hours, apply for research or teaching assistant positions, and take on any optional projects that make you stand out and enable you to work closely with a professor.
Are you planning to work after your undergraduate studies? You can ask your professors to write a general recommendation letter to be stored with the school, professor, or a dossier service. That way your professor can have a template to reference for a future request.
It is never too early to cultivate and sustain valuable academic and professional contacts. Following graduation, stay in touch with professors and mentors. Building a network has lifelong benefits.
Professors and supervisors are often inundated with recommendation letter requests in November and December. Beat the end-of-year rush and start reaching out in the summer or early fall.
Keep in mind that professors and some supervisors may be on leave for all or part of the summer and less likely to respond to email. As such, you may need to send a few reminders to your recommendation letter writers. Allowing 6-8 weeks for recommendation letters to be completed is a good way to ensure timely submission.
More is better! Your recommendation letter writers will appreciate any information that supports your graduate application and request for a letter. Provide them with a cover note that includes your motivations for pursuing graduate study, a brief snapshot of relevant coursework, highlights from your post-undergraduate work experience, the schools you are applying to, and any guidelines or links on how to submit the recommendation form.
Also send a resume, transcript, and your personal statement (if this is drafted). For professors, include courses you took with them, relevant research projects, and highlights from your academic performance and work you undertook with them. For supervisors, focus on achievements at your job.
It’s crucial to stay ahead of deadlines during the graduate school admissions process. That said, you must rely on your letter writers to submit their letters on time. As previously mentioned, ask them 6-8 weeks in advance and provide them with all the information they need to write the letter, including the deadline. But don’t stop there. Check your application status frequently to ensure the letters are submitted. If a letter or two is still outstanding, reach out with a polite reminder via email or phone.
If all else fails, be proactive. Call the graduate school admissions office to explain the situation and ask for their advice on next steps.
With a smaller and more highly qualified pool of applicants, the grad school admissions process can be hyper-competitive. At IvyWise, our graduate school admissions counselors all have direct admissions experience, so they know how to maximize your chance of admission into your top-choice graduate programs and will help you submit a standout application. You will also have access to our unique IvyWise Roundtable, wherein our whole grad counseling team conducts a mock admissions review of your application and provides recommendations for improvement. Contact us to learn more about our graduate admissions counseling.
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While grades may carry the most weight in college admissions decisions, there are many other important components of the undergraduate application process, including your letters of recommendation. These letters allow admissions officers to learn more about who a student is, the role they play in the classroom, and how they might shape their college campus.
With an acceptance rate that has dipped below 5% in recent years, there’s no doubt that getting into Harvard is exceptionally competitive. As a result, students who are interested in gaining admission to the top-tier institution need to understand that every component of their application matters, including the recommendation letters they submit.
While graduate admissions committees read A LOT of recommendation letters that often sound very much alike, some recommendation letters truly stand out and enhance an applicant’s profile. It’s important to ensure that your recommendation letters add value and depth to your graduate school application.
Many colleges require letters of recommendation from teachers as part of the college application. Colleges recognize that your teachers spend significant time with you and, therefore, trust them to provide a candid picture of who you are as a scholar and a person.
