Letter of Recommendation
Frequently Asked Questions

Who should I ask to write my letters?

Ask those who will provide you with the strongest recommendations! A few things to consider before requesting a letter from an instructor:

Would you write a letter for me?

The short answer is that, given sufficient notice, I'm game to write a letter for any current or former student — but the quality of the letter will depend on the factors discussed above.

What materials should I send you?

The materials I ask for are:

When will you submit my letters?

I set aside time to submit letters of recommendation each and every Friday. Given this, if you would like a letter to be submitted by a certain date, you must ensure that the program sends me an invitation by the Thursday before that deadline. If you send me an invitation on Friday, you should expect that letter to go out the following Friday.

Anything else I need to know?

If you ask me to submit references on your behalf, I do have a few ground rules that you should keep in mind throughout the process:

If you fail to follow these instructions, I'll send you a gentle reminder to re-read this section. If I'm repeatedly asking you to re-read this section, keep in mind that this could begin to impact the quality of your letter.