Letters of recommendation

Letters of recommendation

A letter of recommendation is a letter written by a professor (academic letter of recommendation) or employer (professional letter of recommendation), which describes your qualifications and personal traits that make you a good candidate for the scholarship, study program or job that you are applying for.

Depending on the competition, you may be required to submit one or more letters of recommendation.

The aim of the recommendation is to provide the selection committee with a better insight into your strong points, so as to make a more informed decision on whether or not you fit the candidate profile.

Letters of recommendation need to follow a certain structure. Most often the competition will provide a required form of the letter of recommendation you need to submit.

If the letter of recommendation form is not provided by the competition, we suggest you contact the administration center.

Who can write a letter of recommendation?

• teachers/professors
• academic advisors
• current or former employers
• business associates
• anyone who is well acquainted with your academic and/or professional work and achievements

Unless the competition specifies otherwise, it is recommended that you submit both academic and professional letters of recommendation.

It is important to inform well ahead the person who will write the letters of recommendation for you about the format and purpose of the recommendation, as well as the final deadline for submitting it.

In order to make sure you receive a good letter of recommendation, make sure that the person who is writing it gets an insight into additional information on your achievements (provide them with your CV, grade transcript, a list of your work/volunteering/internship experiences, a list or abstracts of your research papers, presentations, awards, programs and workshops, papers graded by the letter-writer, etc.).

Also, provide your letter-writer with an envelope and enough stamps to mail the letters of recommendation. You may also want to make sure they save your letters of recommendation on a floppy disk or CD-ROM (as they might get lost in the mail).

Depending on the competition, you can either mail the letters of recommendation yourself, together with the rest of your application documents, or they can be sent in by the person who wrote them. In any case, the letter of recommendation must be sealed in a separate envelope and bear the signature of the person who wrote it and/or the official stamp of the institution which issued it.

Samples of letters of recommendation

• Sample letters of recommendation 
  (Source: http://jobsearchtech.about.com; English)

Additional information

• Preparation courses on how to write a letter of recommendation
  • How to Write a Successful Application weekend workshop, Institute for the Development of Education
• Preparation books on writing a letter of recommendation
  • IRO library - Institute for the Development of Education
• Internet resources
  • How to write a letter of recommendation 
    (Source: http://www.znanje.infostud.com; Serbian)
  • How to write a letter of recommendation
    (Source: http://www.eastchance.com; English)
  • Letter of recommendation guide 
    (Source: http://www.boxfreeconcepts.com/reco/; English)