Letter Of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation are another action item where you need to be very proactive. You may have to spend a lot of time for this activity. You need to identify the professors or supervisors at work place, whom you’ll entrust with this responsibility. You’ll need to tell them well in advance and seek their approval for the same.

Ideally for MS programs, most Universities ask for 3 recommendations. Some restrict you to 2, while a few allow even a fourth recommendation. For a PhD program, you will be asked for 4 recommendations.

There are two ways you can submit recommendations: Online recommendations and Paper Based recommendation.

Online recommendations

Universities prefer online recommendations. It is very much convenient for them as it requires no paperwork and no overhead on their part (scanning etc. – for your information, most of the paper documents that we send are usually scanned and archived into applicant's folder on a computer).

Online recommendations are also convenient for us as applicants. Once you enter the official email id of your professor, he’ll receive an auto generated email with the instructions and URL to submit recommendation. This is specially helpful if you have left your institute or any of your professors has left on a sabbatical. Obviously your professor needs to spend some time on the internet for each of your recommendation. 

Paper based recommendations

There are a very few Universities which still allow you to give paper based recommendations. You should go for a paper based recommendation when there are problems in getting a online recommendation. Every University has a format for the paper based recommendation. Download the recommendation form from the University website and hand it over to your professor to fill it. It will have some questions about you and a space for your professor to write some text about you. Your professor can attach any extra sheet in case he wants to write more. 

Actually this is what is normally done - Professor fills up the recommendation form and attaches a separate sheet of text along with the form. The professor should use his own letterhead (preferably) or Institute’s letterhead to write his text. The professor should ensure that he has signed both the University recommendation form and the extra sheet that he attaches with it. You are required to get the recommendation in sealed envelopes and you are not supposed to see your recommendation. 

What is all about Waiving off of the rights to review recommendation?

• A paragraph or sentence that explains how recommender knows the applicant and the duration of relationship.

• An evaluation of the applicant and his skills/accomplishments. If possible specific examples should be cited that illustrate the applicant's strengths and qualifications.

• A summary that explains why professor would recommend the applicant and to what degree he would recommend him ['Recommends', 'Highly Recommends'].

• Potential

• Skills/Abilities/Strengths

• Dependability

• Consistence

• Character

• Contributions (to class or community)

• Accomplishments

Always Waive your rights to review/access the letter of recommendation.

You have all the rights to have access to the recommendation for you by your professor. You can ask the university to furnish the recommendation that any professor gave to you.

In all the recommendation forms (electronic or paper based), you'll be asked a question as to whether you waive off your rights to review/access the recommendation or you do not waive off your rights.

You should always Waive off your rights to review/access your recommendation !!By doing so, you allow your professor to be more candid and free in his opinion about you and any University will like that.

Although letter of recommendation is primarily your professor's task, but in some cases, your professor may ask you to draft a rough text about yourself and give it to him. In such a case, you'll require to know the basics that are covered in a letter of recommendation. I am putting a short summary below:

Every recommendation letter should include three key components:

The content of the recommendation letter will depend upon the needs of the person who is requesting it, but there are some common topics that can be addressed: