Recommendation requests

This webpage contains advice for people asking for a letter of recommendation from me (or any other faculty member).

Letter-writing is an important part of my job. It is in your interest to make your busy letter writer's job as easy as possible.

Please give me as much notice as possible so that I can write as detailed a letter as I would like. For job and graduate school applications, please have all of your material to me at least three weeks before the first deadline, with six weeks preferable. For summer programs that require a shorter letter, two weeks is okay. If you give me less time than this, then your letter may be submitted late. Sending me your support materials a week before the deadline is not a good idea.

Here is a list of things that you should send to me in order to help me to write the best possible letter for you. I will likely only start writing your letter once I have all of your information. It often works well to create a shared google drive or Dropbox folder that contains all the relevant documents and spreadsheets.

• Items that everyone should provide

  • Everything that you will submit with your application (e.g. personal essay, research summary, research proposal, teaching statement); very good drafts will do in a pinch. These can be PDF documents or hard copy. Corollary: finish your part of the application early.

  • Deadlines. When is the letter needed?

  • Who else is writing you a letter? (This may help me to mention things that otherwise might not be be covered.)

  • Is there any other information that might help me in writing a letter for you. Is there anything in particular you would like me to address?

• If you are applying to graduate school

  • Transcript (may be unofficial) and a list of math courses you have taken and your grades in them

  • If you have taken course(s) from me: please tell me what class(s) during which semester(s), and what your grade(s) were. Note: if you did not get an A from me, you may wish to consider asking someone else for a letter instead.

  • A list of where you are applying, with at most one school per line. Make this list easy to read. If it contains links or email addresses, make sure that they are correct. 

• If you are an undergraduate applying to a summer program, such as an REU

  • Information about the program(s) to which you are applying, and what they are looking for. Include link(s) to the program website(s).

  • How should I send the letter? Will they contact me? Will you provide email addresses?

  • If you have taken course(s) from me, please tell me what class(s) during which semester(s), and what your grade(s) were.

For other peoples' advice concerning letters of recommendation, visit the pages of Keith Conrad, Rob Pollack, Ravi Vakil, and Joe Silverman. I have heavily borrowed from their webpages in creating this page.