Letter of Recommendation Advice for Faculty Members

• Beinecke Scholarship
• Churchill Scholarship
• Fulbright Grants [Grinnell login required]
• Gaither Junior Fellowship
• Goldwater Scholarship
• Marshall Scholarship [Grinnell login required]
• Mitchell Scholarship [Grinnell login required]
• Rhodes Scholarship [Grinnell login required]
• Truman Scholarship
• Udall Scholarship

Additionally, I recommend that faculty refer to Joe Schall’s excellent book, Writing Recommendation Letters, which is now available online for free at:  https://www.e-education.psu.edu/writingrecommendationlettersonline/

Schall’s book includes specific advice on writing letters of recommendation for major scholarships and fellowships, internships, graduate school, and jobs. Please note that the following guidelines are meant solely for letters in support of fellowship applications; for further guidelines on other letters of recommendation, please see the book by Joe Schall mentioned above.

1. Provide a context for the student’s achievements.
2. Describe the student and the student’s achievements, providing new information or a new lens through which to view information.
3. Confirm and validate the impression they have of the student from the student’s application.

Before writing a letter of recommendation, read the criteria for the scholarship carefully, and be sure that your letter addresses these criteria. Too often, we see letters for scholarships, such as the Truman or Watson, which have very specific criteria, but that read more as graduate school letters of recommendation. After ensuring that you know what qualities the foundation seeks in its candidates, ask yourself: What is unusual about this student, or makes this student stand out in your mind? These are the qualities that the foundation will want to hear about beyond their own criteria.

In general, the best letters of recommendation are longer than one page, but are less than two pages, and, of course, are carefully proofread and edited. Yet specifically, please carefully review the foundation’s requirements.

Students have obligations to faculty and staff whom they approach to write letters of recommendation for them. (See Student Tips for Letters of Recommendation for a student perspective.) Letter writers should be asked at least two weeks (preferably three) before the application is due; if you are not given this level of consideration, you should feel free to refuse to take on the letter. Students should provide you with whatever information you deem necessary for you to be able to write an effective letter. At a minimum, they should give you a recommendation form (with the release signed), an official description of the criteria the foundation wishes you to address, instructions on where and when to submit the letter, and to whom the letter should be addressed. Additional information you may wish a student to give you might include a copy of their application form, any essays or other supplemental materials they are required to submit with the application, a resume, a transcript, examples of the best work they have submitted to you in the past, or a letter reminding you of work that the student has done with you (courses, grades, research activities).

Because the best letters of recommendation come from faculty members who know a student well, you should not feel obligated to write a letter for a student you do not know well. More often than not, committees can tell when a faculty member does not know the student for whom they are writing very well, and the letter is ineffective at best. If a student you do not know well asks you to write a letter of recommendation, you should have an honest talk with that student about whether there would be a faculty member who knows the student better who can write the letter.

• Begin the letter by stating the nature and length of your relationship with this student. If the student has completed advanced-level work with you such as a MAP or internship, this should be noted, as should any contact outside the classroom you have had with the student.
• Describe and evaluate the student’s scholarly work, especially major research projects. What is the quality or significance of this work, and what does it indicate about the student’s future?
• Describe the student’s personality, disposition, and work ethic. Your letter is one of the only places that the foundation learns about the student’s personality before the interview (if any).
• Refer to and reflect on themes in the student’s essay.
• Rank the student in comparison to other students you have taught, or compare the student to past prizewinners you have known. You can use specific, even quantified data to describe the student (in the top 5% of students I’ve taught…among the 10 best students I’ve had in 15 years at Grinnell…reminds me of past students I’ve known who have won the Watson Fellowship).
• You may also ask your colleagues for quotes, comments, or descriptive stories about the student that support comments you have made.

• Do not focus on your own resume, achievements, or stringent standards. Stating “This student received an ‘A’ in my class, and I am a tough grader” tends to be less impressive to a committee than a description of why the student received that “A.”
• Do not be generic, and avoid vague platitudes such as “John is a bright, conscientious, hard-working student.” Read your letter and think about how many students your description might apply to. Again, specificity and details help make a high quality letter.
• Do not provide information already available to the committee on a transcript, resume, or other information provided by the candidate. Instead, place this information in context, or provide the story behind the grade or activity.
• Do not remark on the student’s attendance or preparation for class. It is assumed that top students attend class regularly and complete their homework in a timely manner. By stating that a student does these things, it implies that this behavior is unusual or noteworthy, which does not speak well to the student’s classmates.
• Be honest but highly cautious about criticism. Committees take criticism very seriously, and it is often the kiss of death for a candidate. If you feel the need to include criticism in a letter of recommendation, you should reconsider whether you are the most appropriate person to write for this student, and you should perhaps discuss these concerns with the candidate.
• Do not compare the candidate to other students in that one class (“Mary was the second best student in my section of 101 last year”). This claim is rather weak evidence of the student’s abilities, and it does not provide a broad enough context for the student’s achievements.

Sources used in compiling these guidelines include materials distributed at the National Association of Fellowship Advisors conference in Portland, June 2002, and the Truman Scholarship Foundation.