Hello,
Excuse the form letter below… I receive an overwhelming number of requests for recommendations.
Sarah
--------------------------------------
Here is my standard response to requests for recommendations:
"I feel that it is part of my job to write recommendations and I am willing to take the time and stay in my office later in the evening to write a confidential recommendation for almost anyone. I typically stay 30-45 minutes later for each letter I write.
That said, committees are impressed by recommendations in which the professor has interacted extensively with the student, in which the student put in a lot of effort and/or did very well in the class or laboratory. Conversely, committees are not impressed if a recommender does not have much to say. My recommendation letters are straightforward and honest and sometimes dry. If you are applying for medical school, keep in mind that the first question I will ask myself is whether in the future I would be comforted or disturbed to find out that you are the surgeon assigned to take out my appendix or the pediatrician assigned to heal my child. It may very well be the case that there is another professor who would write a more flattering letter for you. I certainly won't be offended if you ask that other person instead. I want you to be able to get the best recommendation possible.
1) It is easiest (but not required) for you to establish a recommendation file through the UW Career Services. This costs $35, and the office will send out recommendations for you for 7 years after graduation (or about 20 years if you are earning a teaching certificate).
2) If, after reading the text above, you decide you would like me to write a letter, please provide me with a very short (one sentence) description of the position you are applying for and succinctly list the qualities on which your application will be judged (e.g. #1: grades, #2: community service, #3: research experience…). Tell me briefly what qualities you have that apply to these requirements, and how I might have observed these qualities when you were in my class or laboratory.
If you would like to give me a resume and/or a short description of yourself, that is usually helpful. If you are applying for medical school, please tell me if you are interested in a particular branch of medicine. If you were a student in one of my classes, provide information about which year and quarter you took the class. What is your major and when will you graduate? Will you have a BA or a BS? If you are not a current student, it is often helpful to send a photo of yourself so I can remember who you are. At least 200 students pass through my courses every year. During years that I teach Chem162, the number is significantly higher. Include all of this information and your e-mail address along with your forms rather than in a separate e-mail.
3) I do not write non-confidential letters, so remember to sign the confidential authorization on all of your forms! If you are submitting the letter to the UW Center for Career Services, this means signing the back of the form and giving me a copy of that form. If your form does not include a place to sign for a confidential authorization, please type out “I waive my right to view this confidential recommendation” on a separate piece of paper and sign it for me. I will include it with my letter. I need a piece of paper stating the confidentiality for every single letter I send for you. Confidential recommendations are much stronger than non-confidential ones, and doing this will work in your benefit.
4) I do not write online recommendations. I usually discard e-mail solicitations from universities for recommendations. Until universities (e.g. Harvard) can make online/electronic submissions uniformly less painful than paper submissions, I’ll stick with paper. My primary concern is that online/e-mail recommendation requests dribble in to my mailbox and consume time to track down and deal with individually. In order to not limit the number of students who receive recommendations from me, I need to limit the types of recommendations I provide. Please print out any online forms and give them to me with your other forms so that I can complete all of them at once.
5) Contact me in advance. The probability that I will have time to write a thoughtful letter is proportional to the time I have to write it.
6) I prefer to send your letter myself rather than to give it to you to put in an application package. Please include addressed and STAMPED envelopes. For the UW’s Center for Career Services, a 9” x 12” campus mail envelope without postage is sufficient.
7) Paperclip all forms/waivers to the appropriate envelopes.
8) It is your responsibility to double-check with me that I have sent your letter on time. I will often notify you when the letter has been sent. If I have not done this by 1 week before your deadline, contact me by e-mail. I have not forgotten to send anyone’s letter yet, and if you remind me, I never will.
And good luck on your application.
