Writing Letters of Recommendation

What Helps

Provide specific information about the applicant based on your first-hand knowledge, such as: 

• Examples of what the applicant has done (e.g., if the student wrote a brilliant paper, mention its topic and why it stood out).
• Merits of the proposed research project, course of study, internship, etc.
• Positive impact the fellowship would have on the student's short- or long-term goals and overall educational trajectory.

Place the student in a larger context: e.g., a letter could compare the present applicant to past applicants/winners. If possible, the student can be compared to graduate students or professionals. Quantitative remarks and percentages may be useful: "among the three best students I have taught." The strongest comparisons have the widest reach: "top 5% of students in my 20 years of teaching" is stronger than "the best in his section."

Draw on the remarks of colleagues for supporting evidence or the acknowledgement of specific strengths. Letters from professors may also draw on the comments from teaching assistants who may have worked more closely with the applicants.

Tip: Think about how your letter of recommendation might help shape an interview with the fellowship committee.

What Hurts

According to feedback from your colleagues on fellowship committees, the following are not helpful:

• Merely summarizing information available elsewhere in the application (e.g., in the résumé). 
• Focusing too much on the context of how the writer knows the applicant (e.g., descriptions of the course or its approaches).
• Letters that consists largely of unsupported praise and fail to provide specific examples of points mentioned or generic letters sent without regard to the specific fellowship, course of study, or project proposed.
• Faint praise. It is not helpful to say that a student did what might be expected (completed all the reading assignments) or that point to qualities (e.g., punctuality) not germane to the fellowship.
• Focusing on experiences that happened quite a few years ago. Even letters from writers with long-standing relationships are stronger if they are more about what you've seen the student do recently.
• Letters that may be read as implying criticism (beware of left-handed compliments) or whose criticisms might be taken to indicate stronger reservations than stated. Letters should be honest - and honest criticism, if generously presented, can enhance the force of a letter - but committees take critical comments very seriously.

When to Say "No"

There may be times when declining to write a letter might be the best thing to do, such as:

• If the students asks too close to the deadline. (We advise students to ask for letters no less than three weeks in advance of a deadline.)
• If a student approaches you in a highly unprofessional manner.
• If you feel that you cannot be emphatically positive in support of a student.
• If you recall little more about a student than the recorded grades.
• If you simply do not have the time to write a good letter for a student.
• If you think that you are not the best person to write a letter.

Tip: You can help the student to consider alternative letter writers, but agreeing to write for a student whom you cannot strongly support does not help.

Other Considerations

You may want to ask your student who else is writing for him/her and what they are likely to say. You can then focus on complementing what other writers are saying, so that together the letters will provide a more comprehensive picture.

If you are called upon to write letters for two or more applicants for the same fellowship, beware of using too much of the same language in each, especially if they will be read by the same committee. If you have questions about whether your students are applying through the same region for external fellowships, please contact Fellowship Programs (fellowships@yale.edu or 203-432-8685).

Although we encourage students to provide their recommenders with helpful, detailed information, it is not ethical to request that students provide drafts of their own letters. Faculty should also beware of leaning too heavily on material provided by students, since students give much the same information to each recommender and following this too closely can lead to letters that sound too similar.

If you have written a letter in collaboration with another faculty member, be mindful about how you and your colleague use subsequent versions of that letter. We want to avoid situations in which a student is represented by different letters with largely identical language from two different faculty members.

(Some of the items above are responses to an informal survey of Truman Scholarship selection panel members. With thanks to Mary Tolar, former Deputy Secretary of the Truman Scholarship Foundation.)

Note: Lost your copy of a letter you wrote? If it was submitted through our office and we still have it on file, we'll gladly send it to you upon your request.