Recommendation letter policy

*Please follow the directions below carefully. I will prioritize your letter, and it will be easier for me to write you a strong letter, if I don't have to remind you to send me the information I need.*

Allow at least 3 weeks notice for the first request.

Put the recommendation deadline in the subject line of all emails.

At least 2 weeks before deadline, include in a single email:

  • CV
  • unofficial transcript (for undergraduates)
  • draft of personal statement, or an informal paragraph or two about why you are applying to this program and how it fits into your goals
  • information about the programs you are applying to: list of URLs for the programs (if applicable), a list of deadlines for the letters, information about how to submit the letters (electronic submission preferred), PDFs of any forms that need to be filled out (fill out all fields you can).
  • Please ensure that all attached files have useful names, e.g. YourName-CV.pdf and YourName-transcript.pdf

    • Multiple recommendations:

    Undergrads: check with me about how best to deal with multiple recommendations.

    Others: If you are applying to multiple programs with multiple deadlines, please get all of your information together in advance of the first deadline, so that all recommendations can be submitted in a single sitting. It can be mind-boggling to receive multiple automatic emails requesting recommendations for different programs, spread out over several days or weeks. Please be organized and click the web buttons to generate those automatic emails to the recommender all in one sitting, so that the recommender receives all the recommendation requests within a short time frame. Then you can send me a quick email saying ``You should have just received 5 automatically generated recommendation requests from Universities A, B, C, D, E. Please let me know if you didn't receive any of these."

    Reminders:

    If the deadline is a few days away and you don't think I have submitted the recommendations yet, you can send me a reminder, ideally in the same email thread so that all relevant attachments and information remain together.

    Good luck with your application!