What to write in a LOR ?

[blahblahblah]

Hey there,

in my quest for 3 strong letters of recommendation , I am running into a specific problem which seems to be very rare in the US, but very common in Europe. At my school, it is standard for students to draft a letter of recommendation, then giving it to a professor, who will make some changes and send the letter out afterwards.

For you, that might sound like a dream come true; well, it is not.

While I would expect a professor to know the important phrases that definitely should appear in a strong LOR, I myself don

[cardnav]

A good LOR has a combination of facts/figures and personal stories. Adcoms want to know that you got an A in your subject area and that you were published in X, Y, and Z. That said, they also want to know that you are a hard worker and that you have spent countless hours meeting with profs in office hours showing a passion for the material. Also, take the opportunity to make sure to highlight things that are your strongest attributes (both academic and personal) and that strengthen your application.

Remember length is an issue. No adcom wants to read War & Peace so follow the advice my English prof gave my class. It should be like a lady's skirt: Long enough to cover the essentials, but short enough to keep it interesting.

[Stories]

A good LOR has a combination of facts/figures and personal stories. Adcoms want to know that you got an A in your subject area and that you were published in X, Y, and Z. That said, they also want to know that you are a hard worker and that you have spent countless hours meeting with profs in office hours showing a passion for the material. Also, take the opportunity to make sure to highlight things that are your strongest attributes (both academic and personal) and that strengthen your application.

Remember length is an issue. No adcom wants to read War & Peace so follow the advice my English prof gave my class. It should be like a lady's skirt: Long enough to cover the essentials, but short enough to keep it interesting.

All good points. The most important one is that the professor thinks you are capable of succeeding in a graduate program. That phrase (or some form of it) must appear in the recommendation.

[fuzzylogician]

Both posters made good points. I'll add this: I didn't see any of my letters but the profs did tell me what they were writing. I know each had a paragraph about the paper they thought was my best one, including a summary of the problem I worked on and the solution I offered (I'm pretty sure they wrote about three different papers). I also know one had a "fit" paragraph tailored for each school. One called friends at schools I applied to, to tell them about me.

The LOR is a good place to explain any weaknesses your app might have. If you had a bad semester/year or a fall in grades, having a recommender address it helps you give an explanation while not sounding like you're making excuses. Make sure you write this section in a way that makes clear that you've dealt with the problem and it won't hamper your way in grad school.

[MaximKat]

I'll just leave this here

http://www.cs.brown.edu/~sk/Memos/Grad-School-Recos/

[MaximKat]

Oh, and also intense praise is the way to go (but is should be backed up with facts). LORs usually use very positive language and a moderate one will seem on the negative side

[celph]

The LOR is a good place to explain any weaknesses your app might have. If you had a bad semester/year or a fall in grades, having a recommender address it helps you give an explanation while not sounding like you're making excuses. Make sure you write this section in a way that makes clear that you've dealt with the problem and it won't hamper your way in grad school.

I'd like to ask a question on that. So I have this professor who really appreciates my work and my talents and I'm sure he'll write me an excellent LOR. At the same time, I messed up in some courses. So your idea sounds particularly interesting. However, I can't think of any reason why somebody would mess up that would be sort of... excusable. I mean, unless you had a heart transplant or suffered from amnesia or something, everything else seems to me not to be a good enough excuse. So, what's your idea of an excuse (or shall I say "reason for which you didn't perform up to par") which doesn't sound like an excuse?

[fuzzylogician]

First of all, no one is perfect. I don't know anyone who did not have some slip-up - major or minor - during undergrad. What's more, I don't think anyone excepts you to be perfect. Everybody is going to struggle with something at some point in their career, and the important thing to show is that you managed to handle the difficulties and be successful in spite of them.

There are two approaches to handling a screwup: the first, to which I subscribe, is explain nothing and let your record speak for itself. That's especially true if you have enough time to "correct" the situation and earn good grades after the bad one. Strong papers and projects will tell the adcom so much more about your research ability than one or two bad grades, and if a professor is willing to back you up and write about the good things you've done - then I think that's all you need. If you did badly in a class that's especially important, you might want to retake it, or take its sequel and do well in it. SHOW you can do better, don't just tell the adcom.

The second approach is explain the screwup. If you choose to do that, remember this: a) keep it short and sweet, you don't want to waste more than a sentence or two of your SOP on this. highlight the positive, what you've learned from the situation and how it has made you a better, stronger student. c) Make sure the adcom knows that the situation has been resolved and is no longer a problem. I would not mention health issues unless they have been brought under control or you have recovered completely. You could mention financial difficulties - having to work beside studying to earn a living; health problems or the passing of a close family member; or whatever else went wrong in your life to get you derailed. Do NOT make anything up, that's dishonest. If you just screwed up, be mature enough to admit that (=don't give a poor excuse).

[Tritonetelephone]

I don't know if anyone's said this yet - too lazy to read it all. But it can be very helpful to include something negative. This is my boss's strategy with writing LOR's, and trust me - she writes excellent ones! All 3-4 of the people she's nominated for employee awards have gotten one, for example.

It doesn't have to be something big, but it helps to show them that the writer is aware that the person isn't perfect. It will help them take everything else in the letter much more seriously.