First, talk to the professor about the letter. Ask if we would write you a letter of recommendation and tell us the deadline.

Second, please fill out this letter of recommendation release form and give a signed hard copy to the recommender.

Next, help us help you by giving us the items below. They’re not mandatory, but they’ll let us write you a stronger letter.

  1. A list of courses with your professor that includes when you took each course and any projects or presentations you did for that course.
  2. A transcript or list of courses and grades relevant to the program or job for which you’re applying.
  3. A list of co-curricular and extracurricular activities relevant to your application.
  4. A list of foreign and inter-cultural experiences, such as OCS, overseas or domestic volunteering, and homestays.
  5. A resume, if you have one. 
  6. A draft of your application essay, if you have one, so we can better coordinate our letter to your expressed purposes.
  7. A brief description of what you think should be included in the letter. We won’t feel obligated to mention everything, but we can’t include it if we don’t know about it.
  8. Any materials needed to submit the recommendation letters. If you are applying to a graduate school that uses paper-based letters, be sure to provide us with the appropriate forms. For a job application, you might need to supply an email or postal address. If we need to send anything by postal mail, please supply addressed and stamped envelopes, too.
  9. A summary page listing all of the places you’d like us to send a letter, what we need to do, and when the deadlines are. Sorting these in order of deadline makes it easy for us to get the earliest ones out first.
  10. Finally, here’s your end of the bargain: After you’ve heard back, tell us how things turned out. This helps us know how to advise future students.

Thanks, and good luck!