Making the Ask for a Letter of Recommendation
This post is part of a series on how to get great letters of recommendation to grad school.
So you’ve selected several lucky mentors to ask to craft you an excellent letter of recommendation.
This is the part where you have the most leeway in this process. It is very rare for someone to write a negative letter; therefore, if all letters are “good,” your letters need to be outstanding. How you ask for your letters of recommendation will directly impact how strong and thoughtful your letters are.
I once knew a professor who accidentally wrote a letter of recommendation for a girl named Lexie, applying for a fellowship, using all male pronouns. She received excellent feedback from two of the reviewers, but the third reviewer said something to the effect of “A good applicant, but Letter Writer #2 doesn’t seem to know her very well, making me question the validity of her research experience.” Her name was Lexie!
That is what can happen if you aren’t careful about how you ask for your letters of recommendation. You could end up with a very generic letter “This student took my class and got an A and has also worked cleaning glassware in my lab for two years”
Not what you want.
We have developed a pretty foolproof method for asking for letters of recommendation.
First you need to write a letter yourself
Write a short, heartfelt cover letter making your official ask for a letter of recommendation. In your letter include:
A thank you: thank them for having such a positive influence on your academic career. Be sincere, humble, and grateful.
An Ask: Ask them for a “Strong” and/or “Positive” letter of recommendation. This is very important wording which we will come back to shortly.
A due date: Make this very clear. You may also want to ask them to submit it a week before the due date so you can “officially submit the application package” or something along those lines. Professors procrastinate too.
Instructions: Give them specific and straightforward instructions on what they need to do to submit the letter. Will they get an automated email from the application site with further instructions? Do they need to submit through a web-portal themselves? Or do they need to physically mail the letter on official University letterhead?
Write a second letter on a separate page
This is really a continuation of the first letter, but you don’t need a salutation or signature line. On this second page, you should give them keywords, phrases, and talking points which will make their writing 10x easier. It is MUCH easier to write a good letter when you already have talking points in front of you as opposed to coming up with it all on your own. They may very well copy and paste your wording into their letter. This is your chance to tell them what you want them to include- you can ensure different letter writers highlight different strengths in your application. If you say something in your application and it comes through in a LOR, the admissions committee will be a lot more likely to remember it.
In this second letter you should include:
More detail about what you are applying for and why (They can and will echo this in your letter)
A summary of your relationship with them: Remind them of all the courses you took with them (and your grades). Did you TA for them? How long did you work in their lab? Were you acknowledged or co-authored in any papers with them? What specifically did you do in their lab. What were the research projects you did with them? Think of this as your chance to guide their wording in the letter they will write. Here you can highlight the things you learned from them that you want to come through in your application. You don’t want them to write that you cleaned glassware for two years. Instead you “Were trained on the use of XYZ pieces of equipment and protocols.” More likely than not they will use some of your exact wording. Professors are busy and this will make their writing much easier
A summary of highlights from your undergraduate career: What extracurriculars or other accomplishments did you have that they might not know about/ may have forgotten about? Again they will mention these in the letter. Did you have leadership roles in clubs? Were you an “active member” of any academic clubs? Again use this as an opportunity to tell them what to write about and how to phrase it.
Some personality traits they may want to mention: Hard worker? Ability to balance a busy schedule? Attention to detail? This is often the hardest part of writing a letter, is speaking about the personality traits of an undergraduate student who you may or may not know very well.
Repeat the due date: “Thank you again for your help and mentorship, the due date for letter writers is XYZ”
Be sure to keep all of this very concise. You want to save them time not take up more of it. Bullet points and clear headings.
Put together a folder
Now you are going to assemble a little info packet for them. Keep it crisp, clean, and organized.
Get a manila folder, (the ones with no folder pockets).
Print out both letters
Staple the first to the left hand side
Staple second to the right hand side (staple each corner, 8 staples, so they are nice and secure and the folder can open and close easily)
Include a copy of your 1-2 page CV and your transcript. (Do not staple or attach these to the manila folder, loose in the folder is fine)
If you have it written, include a copy of your statement of purpose or other application essay.
On the outside in a dark marker write Your Name and “Letter of Recommendation.” Optionally you can write the due date(s) a third time.
Talk to them in person
Schedule a meeting ahead of time or go to their open office hours if you know they have them. Echo everything that you have written in your cover letter. Tell them that they have had a great impact on you and your career goals. You have learned a lot from them, and were hoping that they could write you a positive letter of recommendation.
This wording is very important. You need to ask for a positive or strong letter of recommendation to graduate school. Say “Would you be able to write me a strong and positive letter of recommendation for graduate school?” Then give them an out, “I know you are busy, so I completely understand if you don’t think you can get to it- I can also ask other professors if needed,” or “If you have time, would be able to write me an outstanding letter of recommendation?”
It is important to gauge their reaction to this. If they look doubtful, sarcastic, bored, or frantic… if there is any hesitation at all, you should consider asking someone else. A good professor who is not able to write you a positive or strong letter will tell you so and be straightforward about it or will tell you they don’t have time. Some professors will only give out letters of rec if you got an A or an A+ in their class. If they give you any sort of excuse or doubt, you should consider asking someone else- because even if they do write you a letter, it will be a generic half-assed note, and your application will suffer for it.
Most likely though, they will give you a warm and friendly response, and agree to write you a letter.
This is when you hand over your folder. Tell them exactly what is in there: your CV, Transcript, some forms, and some “highlights from my academic career that I thought might help you in your writing.”
The point of the manila folder is that, odds are, your letter writer will not actually write your letter for some weeks or months after you ask themb By that time they will have had a hundred other meetings and will have forgotten everything from your meeting other than that they have to write you a letter. But, lucky for you (and them) you have given them a neat little packet containing everything you spoke about and more which makes it very easy for them to write you a great letter. It will sit on their desk as a constant nagging reminder to get your letter done.
Then, feel free to have a frank discussion about your career goals and graduate school aspirations. This is a great chance to get some advice from them on what programs/labs to apply to, to discuss potential funding sources to apply for, and to practice your pitch on why you want to apply to graduate school.
Finally, be sure to follow up with an email thanking them for agreeing to write a letter for you and including with all of that same documentation, so that if they lose your manilla folder, they can still complete your letter!
If it is not feasible to ask them in person, you may ask them via email, but be sure to include all of the same documentation and language, requesting a strong letter.