A letter of recommendation is meant to make you stand out! They are a crucial part of any student's Common App portfolio. Written by the people who know the student best – usually teacher or counselor but sometimes another mentor – they provide insight into a student's skills, personality and potential as the people who know them best.
When outside of the university application context, a letter of recommendation is a written endorsement from someone who knows an individual well, highlighting their skills, achievements, and character. It is typically used to support applications for jobs, academic programs, internships, or other opportunities, providing insight into the individual's qualifications and potential. It might include work history, comments on your character, total time someone has known you, etc. These letters will be written by qualified individuals and are often bosses, teachers, supervisors, or managers (in certain cases they may be peers, customers, etc.)
Why do I need one?
Often these will be a requirement for an application for a new position, scholarship, grant, or learning institution. These organizations want to ensure that they are selecting a good candidate. To do this, they want to hear from qualified people in your life. Essentially, they are asking for a second opinion.
Sometimes the letter of recommendation will be optional. If this is the case, then this is a great opportunity to separate yourself from the rest of the applicants by submitting a stellar letter of recommendation.
However, if you do not have a great recommendation to submit then don’t submit anything. Submitting a review that negatively reflects on you is worse than not submitting anything at all.
How do I get one?
Just ask! Ask someone you know - and who knows you well - to write you a letter. Make sure to give them at least a couple weeks if possible (feel free to also tell them the deadline is a week earlier than it actually is so you can have time to review the letter/pick a new person if necessary)!
If they agree to write you a letter and have the time then provide them with your transcript, and list of accomplishments/resume. Let them know if there are specific things you’d like them to highlight or say. For example, if you are applying for a technical track in a university, you might ask your chemistry professor to highlight your academic accomplishments and your work ethic.
How do I ensure it's good?
Think of the people you respect that would have a good opinion of you. These people should be familiar with you (often, more history is better), feel positively about you, have time to write you a letter, and have a position of authority or reputation that makes their word have impact with the reader.
Make sure to give your recommenders plenty of time to write the letter before the deadline (at least 2 weeks ) and you can even tell them the deadline is earlier than it is.
If you have to submit multiple letters for the same position, try to get letters of recommendation from people who can comment on different aspects of you!
If you are able to review the letter of recommendation before they submit it, then do so! Try to schedule some time before the deadline to review the letter and let them know if you’d like them to change anything about the letter (this could be typos, grammatical mistakes and content).
Read our blog post about 4 top tips for getting stellar letters of recommendation!
Final Tips:
Be polite and gracious. They have taken time out of their own day to do you a potential favor, so always express thanks for what they are doing.
Remind those writing a recommendation to send it before the deadline, or follow-up after you have submitted to make sure they provided.
If you still have any lingering questions, why not schedule a session with one of our experts here at Hermiona!
Commentaires