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This advice is applicable to Postdocs, graduates students and undergraduates.
Adapted from: https://www.interfolio.com/blog/2017/09/requesting-recommendation-letters/
Adapted from: https://web.pa.msu.edu/people/osheabr/rec_letters.html
Before anything, let's minimize the amount of email; please have ready spreadsheet or a table with the programs you are thinking and the deadlines. This will avoid that you will be sending me many emails about deadlines and programs. If the program is not in the spreadsheet or the table at the beginning, it is unlikely that I will send the letter on time.
All of the information listed below should be provided electronically (in pdf/MS word/text file form) at least 2 weeks prior to the deadline.
I will only write confidential letters.
If you have taken a course from me, you should generally have received a strong grade in the course (3.5 or higher). That said, if you feel there are exceptional circumstances regarding your grade, please talk to me about it!
If you want me to write multiple letters, please give me the information for all of them at the same time. This will help me to ensure that I don't accidentally forget to submit one or more letters due to requests being buried in my inbox. (Note: Med school letters all go through Interfolio, so this isn't relevant for that type of letter.)
Information I need to write a letter:
I need the following information, in electronic (pdf, word, rtf, text file) form that is sent to me in a single email. Please do not give me paper copies - it's far easier for me to keep track of digital copies!
A description of what you are applying for: is it some sort of academic honor? Medical school? Dental School? Graduate school? This information is necessary so that I can provide the correct level and variety of detail.
If you are applying to med/dental/vet school, do you have a specialization in mind at this time? (For example, oncology, pediatric medicine, large-animal medicine, reconstructive dentistry...) What made you decide on this specialization?
A note explaining why you are asking me to write a letter for you and who else will be writing letters for you. This helps me to adjust the content of my letter appropriately.
A bullet-point list of things you would specifically like me to talk about in my letter. This isn't meant to be a draft letter for me, but should be things that I should remember when I write a letter for you. This can include standard things from your CV (how I got to know you, prizes won, etc.) but should also include relevant anecdotes to make useful stories about you and your work (i.e., received perfect scores on all exams, first author of a research paper as a junior, etc.). This is not the time for modesty: you need to remind me of how amazing you are so I can emphasize this in my letter!
A copy of your current transcript (unofficial is fine - MSU students, just go to StuInfo and send me a pdf of your grade report).
A copy of your resume and/or CV.
MCAT/GRE scores (if available).
Your personal statement(s) / application essay.
If you took one of my senior capstone courses, please give me a copy of one or two of the papers you wrote for my course.
List of schools to which you will be applying and due dates (Not relevant for med school letters, since it all goes through Interfolio).
The name and title of the person who will receive the completed letter, if relevant.
Any forms that need to be filled out or signed, with information about you (your address, birth date, etc.) already filled in.
If letters have to be submitted electronically: a list of the URLs or email addresses where I should send the letters. Med school applicants: Interfolio will send out an email, ignore this.
If letters are to be physically mailed: a list of the organizations and people that the letters should be sent to AND addressed, stamped envelopes of the appropriate size and postage. Leave the return address area blank - I will fill this in myself.
Keep in mind that for initial letters, it takes me 2-4 weeks assuming I have small workload. If you are at the end of interviews and only is left is the letter, I can make an exception to this rule.
Also, please kindly remind me of things, and do not expect a response from me right away. The reason is that I have a mountain of emails and things to deal with. I do my best, but I have a limit of tasks that I can deal with per day, i.e. meetings with students, reviews some papers, writing papers or proposals, writing some codes, and so forth. The best is to remind me kindly, do not take it personal, it is just the nature of things.
Some REUs that you might want to apply as undergraduate:
https://mrsec.org/education
http://sfp.caltech.edu/programs/surf
https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.jsp
Path 1
If you would like for me to recommend you for a graduate program, fellowship, summer research program, etc., please attend to the following things to help me as I prepare your letter:
Step 1: Come and speak with me well in advance (at least one month preferred). I’d love the opportunity to discuss the program(s), fellowship(s), etc., for which you’re applying. This is especially true when you’re looking at graduate schools, since I may be able to provide some advice and it will be very useful for me to know a little about your motivations and interests as I put a letter together.
Step 2: Prepare and email to me a document containing the following information about yourself to assist me as I write your letter:
1) Classes you took from me.
2) Unofficial transcript(s)
3) A curriculum vitae or resumé (if you don’t have one, this is a great opportunity to put this document together, as it will be extremely useful to you in the future – find suggestions for writing a CV or resume at the Career Center site
4) Cover letter, personal statement, essay, or other documents you are producing for the programs/fellowships/etc. if available to which you are applying.
5) A list of any specific things you would like for me to include. Although I do not require you to produce a draft of a recommendation letter, you should approach this as if you were drafting your own letter: be laudatory but not fulsome. The more specific you can be, the better (feel free to use specific examples to illustrate characteristics/traits).
Step 3: Put together a summary page with basic info about due date and submission instructions (including URL, mailing address, email address, etc.) for each place to which you’d like for
me to send a letter. If there’s other important info you’d like to include that is specific to one
program, please include it here. You can create a spreadsheet with this data.
Step 4: Remind me as the deadline approaches (one to two weeks is ideal). I prefer you have ready a table or a spreadsheet with all the programs you are thinking in applying and also the deadlines.
Step 5: Let me know how everything turns out: I like to get follow-up on these things!
NOTE: If you have the option, please waive your access to the letter. This will ensure that your
reviewers are confident that my statements are completely candid.
Thanks and please let me know if you have questions regarding this list of requests. Good luck!
Path 2
Ask for recommendation letters early
So, ask in a timely manner: as soon as you’ve decided to apply, or at least a month or two before the deadline. In your admirably early email, make sure to include a link to the description of the opportunity (job or fellowship or grant) you’re applying for. To that email, or in a follow-up sent well before the deadline, attach as many relevant documents as you can provide. The writer should see what kind of a case you’ll be making to your potential employers—or to funding bodies, in the case of grants and fellowships. You could show your recommenders drafts of a cover letter, project statement, or teaching statement, all of which would give them a sense of which qualities to emphasize in their own letters. (Some kind faculty members will also help you edit these drafts, if you produce them far enough ahead of time.)
Consider your writers
Ask the right people—the faculty members who know your work the most intimately. If you aren’t quite sure whether your target recommender knows you quite well enough, everything we just said about providing context counts double.
Also, supply the writer with as much information as you can: the year you took the seminar; the gist of your final paper; the subject of the in-class presentation you did. Don’t assume this borderline recommender will recall your brilliant seminar comments in a class you took two years ago, or the work you did for a departmental committee your first year in your program. If it’s appropriate, attach copies of the writing you did that the professor really liked, and follow up by describing how that work fit into projects you’ve done since the class concluded (“I took this research I did for your class and turned it into a journal article on Helen Hunt Jackson; here’s a copy of that article”). That’ll help the professor get a full picture of your evolution as a scholar.
Provide deadlines
If you’re asking a recommender you know well to write recommendation letters for a wide array of jobs during your faculty job search, create a spreadsheet for them to access, with all of the relevant information for each job: contact info, deadline, a link to the job ad. Arrange the rows in order of deadline.
Remind your letter writers
And now that your recommenders have all the information they need, with plenty of time to put it to use, don’t forget to remind them to write. You can ask them when they’d like to be nudged, or you can take matters into your own hands and send a reminder ten days or a week before the deadline arrives.
Keep in mind, some of your recommenders may be writing recommendation letters for you for years in a row, and will then become trusted colleagues in your home field. In this situation, a little professionalism goes a long way.
Adapted from: https://www.interfolio.com/blog/2017/09/requesting-recommendation-letters/
And from: David Libben-Nowell)
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