Unlike an admission essay where you talk about your goals,
your aims and why and how you became who you are now, the recommendation
letter, as the name suggests, is a letter sent to the university
by your professor/ employers recommending you for admission
into the programmes of study.
Don’t underestimate the importance of these letters. While
your transcript, standardized test scores and admission essay
are vital components to your graduate school application, an
excellent letter of recommendation can make up for weakness
in any of these areas.
A well written letter of recommendation provides the admissions
committee with information that isn’t found elsewhere
in the application. A letter of recommendation is a detailed
discussion, from a faculty member, of the personal qualities,
accomplishments, and experiences that make you unique and perfect
fir for the program to which you’ve applied.
Typically, recommendation letters are asked from applicants
applying for graduate programmes only and very few undergraduate
programmes require that a student should submit these.
Here is how to get your recommendation letter:
- The first step to getting a recommendation letter is to figure out how many letter does the school/ university need.
- The next step going forward will be to choose your recommenders.
- Now that you have chosen your recommenders, how will you get them to write you a strong recommendation?
Remember to include your degree transcript, resume or CV, admissions
essays, courses you’ve taken with them, research experience
if any, internship and other applied experiences, to which you
belong, awards you’ve won, work experience, professional
goals, due date for the application and a copy of the application
recommendation forms.
These letters should appraise your academic, professional, and/
or personal qualities. The recommender should therefore talk about
how good a student you are, your academic capabilities, research
potential, analytical skills, communication skills, team work
abilities- how well you get along with others, creativity/ imagination,
leadership skills and volunteer activities
