How long are LOR's supposed to be?

[Averroes MD]

How long are LOR's supposed to be?

One page? Two pages?

The longer the better?

[DGrayson]

It depends on the school. Some schools only want one page while others will look at longer letters. I would contact the department directly if you are not sure. Also keep in mind that the Professor will likely receive information about the letter requirements when they receive the email to upload one. 

[rising_star]

Longer isn't necessarily better since they may not read the whole thing if it's really long. I try to keep mine to a page or maybe 1 1/4 pages in length.

[TakeruK]

I would say the minimum length is enough so that the reader gets the information they need but not too long that it won't be read (or the information won't be absorbed). Although my experience on the writing end is fairly limited, I get the sense that they are typically around 1.0 +/- 0.5 pages long, at least in my field.

[pro Augustis]

One of my professors told me that a letter of recommendation for a phd program is three pages. I have no idea however if that was just his preference for how to do it.

[fuzzylogician]

When applying for jobs, some application systems let you know how many pages your LORs are (though you don't see them, of course). Mine -- from 5 different faculty -- were all at least 2 pages, and most were 3. I have no idea how this translates to PhD applications and I'd never seen any of my letters, but I imagine there is some correlation, so letters might not be 3 pages because there isn't as much to write, but they are probably at least in the 1.5-2 page range.

[Gvh]

I'm not sure of this either, but I've seen letters my PI has written for fellows applying for faculty or postdoc positions and they are never longer than a page...