LOR guidelines

1) Committees look for:

 Students Research Record
 Summary of Transcript
 Standardized Test results. (Not applicable for me)
 determine whether the statement is promising
 get the gist of 2-3 letters of recommendation

THEY HAVE ONLY SIX TO SEVEN MINUTES PER LOR (MAKE IT COUNT)
So, write good things for above

Directions

Be Concrete: Determine Extra things were done.

 Not class gibberish

 Mention hard and difficult things (Show that the college’s curriculum is tough)
 Few mentions about old students working under you and where are they right now
 Compare this student to the other students and determine his/her worth.
 Tell us about the professor’s background

Reporting on research

 Describe Student’s work in your words.

 Tell us about the student’s contribution was
 Tell us whether he succeeded or failed?
 If its ongoing, tell us why it will succeed
 Put a publication in context
 Put signs that he took ownership of the project

Reporting on courses

 Put what textbook did you use

 How much did it cover?
 Did student take it earlier than usual?
 Did the student do expected job at something?
 Were they biased in any parts of the course?
 Reporting on personality

 Be honest and necessary. (This section has never been held against the student)
 Personalize (depends on school to school though, but never target it to a specific
institution
 Brag about the student (filtering their input is the teacher’s job, not theirs)
 Tell us about the relevant things that did not happen (things outside academia, hobbies,
etc etc etc)

Help your students form a strategy

 Don’t make three identical LOR’s