Intro to Letters of Recommendation
This post is part of a series on how to get great letters of recommendation to grad school.
A little bit on why they matter:
One thing that is substantially different between graduate and undergraduate applications is just how much your letters of recommendation matter. They play a much more significant role in graduate school admissions. A letter of recommendation can make or break an application. A strong letter can help an applicant stand out among the thousands of other applicants and demonstrate their potential for success in graduate school. On the other hand, a weak letter can seriously hinder an application and make it less likely to be accepted.
I should clarify this by saying, you can get into grad school with ‘just okay’ letters of rec… it isn’t the absolute end of the world. But, a strong letter of rec will make your application stick out.. And that is really what you need, you need your application to stick out. You need it to shine. And it should go without saying that a poor letter of rec will seriously hinder your application, often to the point where it is tossed out entirely.
Way back when you were applying to college you probably had a few favorite teachers, a coach, or a guidance counselor write you letters- and they all probably said very similar things about your potential. While these letters played a role in undergraduate admissions, unless they were written by someone famous or about something really spectacular, things like your GPA, SAT/ACT scores, and application essays were usually worth a good bit more.
That is no longer the case, and I would argue that the letters of rec are one of the most important parts of your application. Admissions committees take these letters of recommendation very seriously, and so should you. A letter of rec will speak to who you are as a person, how you perform academically, and how you work with others.
First you need to construct an excellent resume, and this isn’t the post for that, so See here to Construct the Perfect Resume For Graduate School
At the end of the day, you have no true control over what goes into that letter… but there are some ways to set yourself up for success:
