What is a recommendation letter for grad school? If you are thinking about applying for graduate school, you are going to want to know what is a recommendation letter and how to get a good one.
Graduate school admission committees use recommendations letters to see if the skills, experience, and knowledge they see in other sections of your application align with what your recommenders think of your abilities.
The 5 factors that go into applications for graduate school programs are:
- Undergraduate Transcripts
- Resume
- Personal Statement
- Test Scores (GRE, etc.)
- Recommendation Letters
Getting good recommendation letters, especially from proven professionals you have worked with, is a great way to leverage your graduate school application.
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(Related: How to Write a Personal Statement for Grad School)
What is a Recommendation Letter?
A recommendation letter is a written statement by someone that can can speak to your abilities whether this is academically related, work related or personally.
Recommendation letters can also be called letters of recommendation.
Recommendation letters are usually from a professor/teacher, employer, supervisor, or generally anyone who can speak to your abilities and experiences.
Ideally recommendation letters are used to attest to your:
- Qualifications
- Skills
- Achievements
- Work Ethic
- Personality
- Aptitude for success in a graduate program
Here is an article with example recommendation letters just in case you are curious.
Typically for graduate school applications you will need 1-3 recommendation letters. With 2 or 3 recommenders usually being the most common.
Recommendation letters are usually sent directly to the school from your recommender, i.e. the student usually never sees these.
This is important to keep in mind when choosing the persons you would want to write recommendation letters for you. As you will want an authentic and someone who can really speak about you in an in-depth way.
Difference between recommendation letter and reference letter
Recommendation letters should not be confused with reference letters.
The main difference between the two is that recommendation letters are specific and usually tailored to each program being applied to while reference letters tend to be more general and typically used for job applications and not graduate school applications.
These two terms can be interchangeable, but I just wanted to mention this nuanced difference.
(Related: How to Write a Resume to Get Into Grad School)
Who to Ask for a Recommendation Letter?
Considering you are only given 2-3 recommendation letters to submit to a given program, it is truly important that you choose these persons wisely.
Typically it can work in your favor to have two professors and then one individual you have worked with in a non-academic sense write your recommendation letters. However, given your personal experience and own individual journey you should determine who would be most ideal for you to ask.
Generally this is the list of individuals you will want to ask for recommendation letters:
- Professor/Teachers
- Employer
- Supervisor
- Preceptor
- Volunteer coordinator
- Mentor
You should be choosing someone who has authority in whatever position they are in and can speak directly and personally to your experience and skills.
You will want to choose persons that you know will speak positively for you and show the admission committee that you have the potential to not only succeed in graduate school but go above and beyond.
Think hard about the persons you will want to write your letters as this can be used as a deciding factor between letting one of two equally qualified students into their program.
Another thing to consider when choosing who to ask for a recommendation letters is how busy is the person you are going to ask and if they will have enough time. You will want to ensure that this person has quality time to write a letter that will benefit you in the application process.
Before deciding who you want to ask for a letter, you may want to consider speaking to this person before about potentially being a recommender for you and see what they say.
Not everyone is going to be willing to write a recommendation letter for you for many different reasons, so be sure that this person is aware that you may ask them for one.
When you have decided who you will ask then you should definitely have a conversation with this person so they can have a better understanding of what your goals are and how this program would help you.
It can be hugely helpful to send your recommender:
- Resume
- Personal Statement
- List of qualities, skills and accomplishments you want to highlight
- Specific program information (i.e. what makes this program “cool”)
- Other relevant documents
This can help your recommender better understand your perspective on applying for whichever program it is.
Lastly, if possible you would want to ensure that each of your recommendation letters are tailored to whichever programs you are applying. This is more important if you are applying to different fields of study for graduate programs.
When to Ask?
Generally speaking, you will want to ask for recommendation letter at minimum 1 month before the application deadline.
I would suggest that you ask 2 months prior just so that your recommender has more than sufficient amount of time to write on your behalf.
This being said, you may not have your resume, personal statement and other documents ready to share. If you can have a rough draft to send to your recommender upon asking, this could be hugely beneficial and can help you get your recommendation letters submitted sooner.
Once you have asked, you will want to follow up with this person to ensure that they know when the deadline date for applications are due. You can even give an earlier deadline just to ensure that you will have a completed application to be submitted.
The last thing you want to happen is for your application to not be complete because you didn’t give your recommender the correct deadline date.
Communication, and good communication that is, will be important in ensuring that you have everything submitted on time.
Conclusion
Recommendation letters are a factor of graduate school applications that should not be overlooked. Getting good recommendations can truly show an admission committee that you are ready to make the jump from undergraduate to grad school.
There are 5 factors that come into play in your graduate school application.
These are:
- Undergraduate Transcripts
- Resume
- Personal Statement
- Test Scores (GRE, MCAT)
- Recommendation Letters
Recommendation letters are used to showcase skills, experiences, work ethic and other qualities to graduate school application committees. So you should ensure that you recommenders are on the same page as you and can communicate your strengths academic, non-academic and personally.
Make sure that you give your recommender the right resources and time to write you a superb recommendation letter. And never forget to check in and ensure that everyone knows the correct deadline dates.
How did you choose your recommender for your recommendation letters for graduate school?
