Letters of Recommendation

In general I am happy to write letters of recommendation for students I know who are applying for graduate school, OCS programs, jobs, fellowships, internships, REUs, or other academic programs. If you would like me to write a recommendation for you, then the first thing you should do is talk with me about what your letter will be for and approximately when I will need to submit it. It's best to do this in person, but if we're not in the same city then it's fine to call or email me. After that, there are a few things I will need to write the most effective, persuasive letter I can.

1. Time.
It is difficult to write the sort of clear and specific letter that will be most helpful on short notice. Please make sure I have everything I need for your letter at least a week before I need to submit it. Two weeks before the due date is even better.


2. A copy of your transcript(s).
This can be unofficial. More than your grades, I'm interested in your overall academic path.


3. A resume or curriculum vitae if you have one.
If you haven't written a resume or cv then there's no need to do it just for this letter. But if you do have one then it will help me to see it. Sometimes I can paint a more complete picture when I know more about what you've done.


4. Permission for me to include private information about you in the letter, such as the courses you have taken with me and your grades.
The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) says I need your permission to share academic information about you that isn't public, including what courses you took with me, and the grades you earned in any of your courses. Please give me this permission.

There are two ways you can do this. One way is to fill out, sign, scan, and send me via email this FERPA release form. The other way is to send me an email from a Carleton email account, and indicate somewhere in your email that you grant me permission to write you a recommendation letter that includes non-directory information such as the courses you have taken, grades you have received in courses or on exams, and other information about your academic work. Please note that this email must be from a carleton.edu email account. If you don't currently have a carleton.edu account then you will have to use the release form.

You can collect all of the above materials any time: you don't need to know what, exactly, you're applying for. Once you have figured that out, there are a few other things that will help me write a stronger letter.

5. A short description of how the program(s) you're applying to fit into your larger plans.
If your application requires a personal statement of some sort, then that will probably include this information.


6. A short description of what you think I should include in the letter.
Some of the things you can talk about here include the noteworthy work you did in my classes (the more specific, the better), the role you envision my letter playing in your overall application, and what aspects of your experience, past work, or background you would like me to emphasize. Don't be modest, or assume I will remember the details of your work, or even what I said about it at the time. In the end I will make the final decision about what goes in your letter -- I may write about something that stood out to me but not to you -- but your input here will help make your letter stand out.


7. Any materials I will need to submit my letter.
Most graduate schools, and a variety of other programs, handle recommendation letters electronically: they will automatically send me an email with a link I can use to submit my letter. For programs like these, there's nothing else you need to give me. On the other hand, if the organization you're applying to is using paper-based letters, then I'll need the appropriate forms from you. For a job application or an REU you might need to give me an email address or a postal mail address to send the letter.


8. A summary page.
Please give me a neatly-formatted list of all the places you want me to send a letter, what I need to do for each one, and what the deadlines are. Sorting these in order of deadline makes it easy for me to get the earliest ones out first. It's fine to make changes to this list later, but if you do, then please give me a new, complete list, not just a list of the changes.

Everything I've listed so far needs to happen before I send your letter(s), but there's also one thing I need later on.

9. Tell me how it turned out!
When the process is all over, please let me know how it all turned out. What program(s) did you get in to? If you got into more than one, which did you choose, and how did you decide? Mostly I'm just excited to find out what happens next for you, but this information also helps me write more effective letters in the future, and give other students better advice.