Letters of recommendation are a significant component of applications for grants, fellowships, graduate school, and jobs. We gladly write letters of recommendation for our students. You are important to us, and we recognize how important these letters are to you, so we take them very seriously. They are in no way an imposition. In order for us to be able to write you the strongest possible recommendation, we offer you these guidelines. Please help us help you!

  • Whenever possible, request a letter of recommendation at least one month before the stated deadline. 
  • If you’re considering graduate school, we strongly encourage you to have an initial conversation about this with one or more linguistics faculty several months before the first application deadline. We would like to help you plan!
  • You can make your initial request by email. If you’re on campus or (as an alum) are available for a Zoom conversation, it can be very useful for us to have a conversation about the opportunities you’re applying for, and the role you see in your application for the letter you’re requesting.
  • Be prepared to provide us with some or all of the following documents, at our request, a couple weeks before the (first) application deadline:
    • A completed and signed copy of Carleton’s FERPA release form, if needed.
    • A neatly-formatted list containing
      • all the schools, organizations, etc. to which you will be applying
      • the associated deadlines
      • relevant information about each institution or program (for example, “the M.S. Program in Computational Linguistics” ).
    • A draft of your statement of purpose and/or other application materials. Even a working draft is useful: it helps us to better understand your goals, and so that we can tailor our letter accordingly.
    • The writing sample you plan to include in your application.
    • The c.v. or resume you plan to include in your application.
    • A list of coursework you consider relevant, including but not limited to Linguistics courses.
    • Any additional information that you think will help us write a compelling letter. This might include:
      • particular experiences (within your courses with us, or your extra-curricular activities) that you hope we will highlight
      • elements of your transcript you would like us to provide further context for
  • It’s always a good idea to check in with us a few days before the first deadline for the letter(s), particularly if you’ve given us plenty of lead time. We can confirm then that we’ve received all the prompts to upload letters that we should have, and ask any follow-up questions.
  • Last but not least, please keep us posted on the outcome of your applications, and your plans!