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I'm in the process of applying to MPP or related programs within the U.S, especially at top-tier programs like Harvard Kennedy School. I plan to pursue a joint MBA/MPP degree. The MPP programs had asked for letters of recommendation (LOR). Does anyone have tips, samples, or ideas of what makes a stellar letter of recommendation for a public policy program (MPP)? So I can guide my recommenders because they've never written a LOR for a public policy program and had asked me for some guidance. Two are within academia and one is my client with a social impact business. TIA!

Hi all! Hope you all are safe and healthy! I'm an undergrad Indian student currently pursuing a 5 year Integrated MS program in Pure Mathematics. I'm currently involved in a research project as part of my MS Thesis under the supervision of a Prof. at Penn State. Hopefully, we'll have 1-2 joint works published by the time I apply. He is very happy with my work so far and has agreed to be one of my recommenders for grad applications for PhD studies beginning Fall 2021. Penn State is one of my top choices and indeed, I wish him to be my advisor in future! So, is it possible for me to ask him for a reco for applying to Penn State, given the fact that he himself is a Prof. at Penn State? I'm feeling a bit awkward. I haven't yet submitted him my final list of preferred choices of universities. Thank you!

Hi, I am looking to go back to school for an MSW in Fall of 2021, I know I have a long time until applications open, much less need to be submitted, but I am wondering if I should start asking about letters of recommendation now? I graduated from undergrad in 2017 and most of the schools I've been looking into applying to require 1 lor from a professor if you're within 5 years of graduating. I was very close with a few of my professors (went to acting school so it's hard not to be) but, I've totally changed careers since then and I haven't spoken to any of my profs in years. I'm wondering when I should reach out, and what would be important to include in my ask?

Hi everyone! I was applying for PhD programs of the US universities. I had a connection with a professor from the UK and he is perfect as a recommender except that I'll also apply to be this professor's institution and want to be supervised by him, I was worried if it would make him feel upset - probably thinks himself was not the first choice of my applications.

I'm in a bit of a precarious situation with respect to my LORs and I was hoping for some advice. I finished my undergrad 10 years ago and I'm currently in the process of applying to grad school for Masters in Statistics. I have taken some course work as prerequisites for grad programs(CalcI-III and Linear Algebra). I'm getting two strong LORs from tenured professors from these courses but I am unsure what my best option is for letter number three. I have three potential professors I could ask but they seemingly all have drawbacks. 1. A calc professor- I got an A+ in his class. On several occasions he made it clear that he considers me to be an exceptional student. The drawbacks as I see them are that he is a adjunct and seemed disinterested when I asked for a LOR. I believe that he is a retired engineer and teaches to stay busy. I asked him via email if he would write a letter and he agreed. In my email I offered to come meet with him in person and provide him with my transcript from my undergrad institution or a CV so he could personalize the letter. He seemed disinterested in his response which was one sentence, something along the lines of "ok where should i send them". I took the class last spring so there is a possibility that he doesn't remember me. English isn't his first language so its also possible that what comes off as being disinterested is really just a language barrier/cultural differences. I'm just concerned that he will write a lukewarm, impersonal letter which from my understanding will do far more harm than good. 2. Another Calc Adjunct.- I got an A in his class but he has only been teaching for a year or two. I have a decent relationship with him but I don't think I stood out as much in his class. 3. A tenured professor from my undergraduate institution- I worked closely with her as a research assistant. I'm mentioned in the "Acknowledgment" section of at least one of her papers. This would obviously be the best option if it wasn't for the fact that I haven't been in contact with her for ten years. I feel like admissions departments won't be blown away by a letter saying I was great to work with in 2010. I feel like all my options are sub-optimal. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I initially posted this in the wrong place(I'm a noob here). Sorry if it shows up twice. I'm in a bit of a precarious situation with respect to my LORs and I was hoping for some advice. I finished my undergrad 10 years ago and I'm currently in the process of applying to grad school for Masters in Statistics. I have taken some course work as prerequisites for grad programs(CalcI-III and Linear Algebra). I'm getting two strong LORs from tenured professors from these courses but I am unsure what my best option is for letter number three. I have three potential professors I could ask but they seemingly all have drawbacks. 1. A calc professor- I got an A+ in his class. On several occasions he made it clear that he considers me to be an exceptional student. The drawbacks as I see them are that he is an adjunct and seemed disinterested when I asked for a LOR. I believe that he is a retired engineer and teaches to stay busy. I asked him via email if he would write a letter and he agreed. In my email I offered to come meet with him in person and provide him with my transcript from my undergrad institution or a CV so he could personalize the letter. He seemed disinterested in his response which was one sentence, something along the lines of "ok where should i send them". I took the class last spring so there is a possibility that he doesn't remember me. English isn't his first language so its also possible that what comes off as being disinterested is really just a language barrier/cultural differences. I'm just concerned that he will write a lukewarm, impersonal letter which from my understanding will do far more harm than good. 2. Another Calc Adjunct.- I got an A in his class but he has only been teaching for a year or two. I have a decent relationship with him but I don't think I stood out as much in his class. 3. A tenured professor from my undergraduate institution- I worked closely with her as a research assistant. I'm mentioned in the "Acknowledgment" section of at least one of her papers. This would obviously be the best option if it wasn't for the fact that I haven't been in contact with her for ten years. I feel like admissions departments won't be blown away by a letter saying I was great to work with in 2010. I feel like all my options are sub-optimal. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. Edit: spelling

Hi everyone! I'm wondering if anyone has experience with guiding letter-writers at UK/European/non-US universities towards writing a letter that will be received positively by American PhD programs. I've long been aware of the different letter-writing styles of UK vs. US faculty members, and it's becoming increasingly apparent to me as I research the issue and talk to previous professors that the brief, objective and reserved letters written by Brits run the risk of being received as not very positive (despite their intentions) by American adcoms. I am applying to PhD programs next fall and I will have 1 American recommender from undergrad, 1 very strong writer from my UK MA institution, and... hopefully another recommender from my UK institution that will not be as strong as the others but not by a large margin (I hope). I am wondering if there is any sort of...template? I can send to the latter two that would help them understand what would be expected of their letters at the programs I'm applying to. I've come across this page from The Professor Is In, but it's geared toward letters for dissertating PhD students entering the job market so it's not all that helpful. I am especially worried about the personalities of all of the options I have for my 3rd letter not being conducive to writing a warm letter.

I am currently in the process of applying to PhD programs in environmental science/tropical ecology and conservation. I know–more or less– what schools I will be applying to. I also know who will be writing my letters of recommendation for me... but I do not know how they need to be sent to the schools I am applying for. I've heard about Interfolio, and I'm not sure what else it out there. I graduated from UCLA and UCLA offers a LoR service for alumni, but it is much more expensive than Interfolio. I've also heard about LoR writers mailing the letters to the schools themselves? I've tried to look into how you actually submit letters to grad school, and I still feel so confused. How do you actually send the letter to the school? I know it can be school specific, but any advice on the following would be much appreciated: - HOW do you send letters of rec to the schools you are applying to? - What services for sending LoR electronically is the best? (ex. Interfolio, through your alma mater?) This may seem like such a trivial question (and I'm sure I'l look back thinking it was a silly thing to ask), but I am just plain confused on how my LoRs need to get where they are supposed to go. Thanks!!

I submitted my application to the University of Washington - Department of Biology PhD program a week ago. About halfway through when the application was open, they swapped their application format and required those with an application open to start a new application that had the correct questions. I already had all of my LOR requests sent out from the old application, but only one had been submitted at that point. I was told that it would be easiest if I just left my old application open, and the admissions team would transfer the letters over to my new application once they had all been submitted. All of them were submitted before the deadline and I let the graduate office know, they said that they would transfer the letters to my new app (and let me know when they did), even if the app had already been submitted. I submitted my new application, but it's been over a week and the letters still haven't been transferred yet. I am getting a bit worried as I have two very strong letters and one good letter and do not want to be left behind by the application reviewers due to not having all of my LORs in the correct application. Should I be worried or will they not even be looking at applications yet? At what point should I ask for an update?

Hi everyone! So I'm trying to choose the people who are going to write me recommendation letters. One is my current master's advisor, another is a professor with whom I worked as a research assistant, but I'm stuck on the third. Should I ask my first master's degree advisor who supervised my thesis research almost 10 years ago (yes, I'm currently doing a second master's degree) or a professor with whom I have taken a class just a year ago (I got A in the class, but have never worked with him in a research environment)? I have very good relationships with both. The first is from a foreign country/institution while the second is from the same country I intend to apply for a PhD in. Any insight would be appreciated. Good luck to all!

Hi everyone, So, I am currently in the process of applying to graduate school, and while I feel very confident about my application, I'm super nervous about asking for letters of recommendation. To provide you with some information, my overall GPA is a 3.7, and the GPA of my minor (the field I want to go into) is a 3.9. Further, I am currently executing two relevant research projects which will make my application stand out. I have already decided on two of my recommendors. One is going to be my work supervisor who has known me personally and professionally for three years. I feel like she can speak to my abilities as a professional, and her letter will nicely complement those of two professors. Another letter will be from a professor in my major with whom I took two classes and received A's in (I selected him because he's very, very nice and I think he would say wonderful things about anyone). It is my final letter which I am struggling with. I need this letter to come from someone in the department which I intend to pursue my master's in (the one I am minoring in). Unfortunately, I feel like I haven't been able to develop strong relationships with these professors as I have only taken 1 class with any of them, and their main focus is with graduate students so there are no research or teacher's aide opportunities with them. Two years ago, I took two classes with the same professor in the department and got A's in both. I participated a lot in class and did quite well, but I feel as though by now she will have forgotten me. Also, there is a professor that is my advisor and is also the advisor of the club I am president for, but she's never taught me in a course and is only now beginning to get to know me. In general, I feel like I am a very independent learner and have not cultivated strong enough relationships with any professors to get particularly good letters of recommendation. Has anyone else been in a similar situation, and what have you done to overcome it? Thank you so much for your input!

Hey all, I am looking to see how likely I am to get into the following schools with the following criteria. I feel like I am fitting in somewhere around the average requirements of most applicants at these schools, with maybe a slightly lower GPA. GPA: 3.3 from a small liberal arts school in Ohio GRE: 161 V and 159 Q with 5.0 Analytical Writing Experience: 3 campaign cycles as an intern/volunteer (since '08), 3 campaign cycles as a paid staff in field management and data analytics; 1 year in nonprofit fundraising; 3 months interning with a lobbying firm in D.C.; Only 2 years of work experience after completing my undergrad (I took a semester off to work on the 2012 Presidential campaign) and volunteered/interned throughout college on various local, state, and national races in digital and organizing related work. I am applying/have applied to the following schools: Duke Sanford (MPP), Chicago Harris (MPP), Syracuse Maxwell (MPP), UT-Austin (MPA), Georgetown McCourt (MPP), NYU Wagner (MPA), OSU John Glenn (MPA), USC Price (MPA), IU SPEA (MPA). Thanks!

So, here's the deal. I asked for letters of recommendation Friday morning, December 23rd. I am strictly applying to 2 schools with later application deadlines in my home state for the MA only. (I decided to wait on adding details until I received a response from each potential recommender.) I then realized the application deadline I thought was February 15th is actually January 15th. I misread it; I know no excuses, just trying to decide what to do at this point. (The other deadline isn't until February 28th, so I'm okay as far as that one.) My options are as follows: 1. Ask profs. if they can put together a letter in 3 weeks, 2. Apply to the 3rd school I was considering (which I'm not keen on), but whose deadline is February 1st. (1/3 profs. has written me a grad school letter in the past. She's the 1 I haven't heard back from yet.) 2/3 professors e-mailed asking for more details on the 23rd, and I now have to decide what course of action to pursue. What would you do?

Hi! I plan to apply to Master's of Education programs (I have done no previous grad work), with a focus on education policy and in particular the issue of increasing the post-secondary enrollment of those from low-income groups, with a sub-focus on how post-secondary institutions can facilitate this. As an undergrad I mainly took political science and psychology classes, with very little coursework relevant to education. My interest in education is something I developed independently of organized academics and have continued to develop professionally, and now I am looking to pursue a Master's of Education. I have chosen two letter of recommendation writers who I believe are well suited to the task, but I need one more and am struggling to find a suitable writer. Pretty much every professor (I already have a professional reference) either taught me in something unrelated to education and/or had essentially no involvement with assessing my work (the joys of huge class sizes). This leaves me in a tough spot, and I'm wondering if anyone could give me their opinion as to which of the options (listed with some pros and cons) sounds best. 1. A professor of a childhood and adolescence psychology course I took -I finished first in the class (120+ people) -Loosely tied to education in that we talked about how cognitive abilities change from birth to adolescence, as well as how this impacts learning (this is one of the professor's interests). -I had very little contact with the professor (all assignments marked by TA). Our conversation was limited to brief discussions about the material on exams and an error that resulted in incorrect final marks originally being assigned to each person in the case. 2. A professor of a policy making course I took -I got a high A, though I was not first in the class (about 45 people) as was the case with the above course -We discussed certain attempts at K-12 education reform in the US, although this wasn't a major part of the course and no assignments were tied to this. The professor also got their PHD from one of my goal schools. -TA marked most work. I had more discussion with the professor in this course than the above course, but don't feel that I came across as particularly impressive. 3. A professor of a history course I took -I earned an A+ in this course and what was supposed to be an 8 page term paper turned into a 36 page pager with the instructor's permission (the paper discussed the role of formal education in shaping the ideologies of civil rights leaders, though the focus of the paper was broader than education). Following the course they sent me an email suggesting that I look into honors history programs. -On the other hand, I took this course about 6/7 years ago and it was a first year course (one of my LOR is already coming from someone I only took a 200 level course with) 4. A professor who I took two political science courses with (intro to comparative politics and the politics of immigration) -A+ in both classes and the professor knows me the best out of any of these options. They actually wrote me a letter a few years back for another program; admissions results were solid, though I eventually chose not to pursue that. -Material was, for the most part, not tied to education (their interests are in immigration policy), but there was minor discussion in one course about how early education outcomes have a long lasting and pervasive impact. -Professor has a reserved personality (I don't know if this is at all linked to how highly they praise students in LOR) and I worry that they may be annoyed that I'm now asking them for a new letter to a different program.