Profile of prof in recommendation letter?

[Adip]

Hello,

I want to apply for master's degree in mechanical engineering in US. I am bit confused with what all sections to include in recommendation letter.

Should in include profile of professor, his rating on other qualities like communication skills in recommendation letter? If I include profile, then a professor has less that 5 paper publications. So, when admission committee member from university will read this profile, then he might think this prof profile is not so good and will it cause negative impact on my recommendation? Should i include profile then?

[ktel]

I don't really understand what you mean. Are you talking about including a profile of the professor who is writing the letter? I have never had a letter of recommendation include a profile of the person who is writing it for you. The letter is supposed to attest to your abilities, not the abilities of the recommendation writer. That being said, the more well-known and successful your letter writer, the better it looks (typically, provided the letter itself is strong).

[cunninlynguist]

In the letter itself, your referee should provide some context (i.e. how that person knows you and in what capacity they supervised you). There is no need for them to delve into their personal or academic details -- the letter is, as ktel said, about you.

And I really doubt that an admissions committee would sit around and calculate how many publications each letter writer has and rank them accordingly. That would be hilarious.