Information for Students Requesting a Letter of Recommendation Congrats on reaching for a goal that requires a letter of recommendation! Writing letters and supporting our students is an important part of our job, and it’s very rewarding to see students succeed in their professional goals. Because we receive many requests for letters and want to write letters that help students, we compiled this document to give you more information about the process. If you haven’t already, be sure to read the Graduate School FAQ sheet to learn more about the entire process of applying to grad school. There are tons of helpful links in the FAQ document. This current document is specifically designed to help faculty write a stronger letter for you. Before answering the questions below about our time together, there are some things students often don’t realize about the process of writing a letter. Read over these FAQs to determine whether to proceed to the next section. 1. Will the person I have asked to write a letter be willing to write a letter for any/all programs I am interested in applying to?

We want to make sure you are a good match with the program(s) you are applying to. Faculty often look at your GPA, curriculum vitae (CV), and other information to help determine this match. We need to know why you are applying to specific programs so we can address this in our letter and when ranking you. These topics are addressed in the questions below to ensure this info is clear for us when we write your letter.

When students ask for letters to doctoral programs, especially medical schools and Ph.D. programs, it is vital that students have the GPA, test scores (e.g., GRE, MCAT), and CV to be competitive. Clinical Ph.D. programs have acceptance rates of ~12% (link); competitive programs like UNC have rates closer to 2% (link). If students apply to programs that they aren’t competitive for, they incur a lot of needless expenses because applications are very expensive. These “here’s to hoping” applications are also costly to the applicant and recommender in terms of time and energy; please ensure you meet the qualifications for the programs you are applying to. • Doctoral programs typically accept students with GPAs in the 3.85 – 4.00 range. Students in the ~3.5 – 3.8 range should ensure they have other strong features of their application. Many students, especially students who have GPAs below a 3.5, should consider the many counseling, social work, and Master’s- level programs that don’t emphasize GPAs as strongly and/or will help you strengthen your future application for doctoral programs. See Graduate School FAQ for more info.

2. What else do programs ask my reference writers to submit?

In addition to uploading a letter, we are often required to rank you in the recommending process. See images below for examples of the ratings that often accompany graduate school recommendations. Many students don’t realize that faculty must provide these types of rankings in addition to the letter itself. Be sure you consider how well we can answer these ranking questions based on our time together. The longer we have known you, the more recently we have worked with you, and the more positive learning experiences we have shared, the easier it is to provide strong rankings. It is very difficult to complete this section if we didn’t spend a great deal of time together, didn’t work with you in a great semester, or if it has been a long time since we worked together.

3. Who should I ask to write a letter of recommendation?

Make sure you ask people who have worked with you recently, and people who saw the best version of you. Students often have difficult semesters due to extenuating circumstances. If you didn’t perform at your best during our time together (e.g., received B or lower, had any issues with plagiarism/cheating, showed unprofessional behavior in class/lab, didn’t demonstrate a strong ability to handle stress, had lots of missing assignments, etc.), please consider the effects these actions may have on our ability to write you a strong letter. We can’t write letters on what we hope to be true about you; we must explain and rank the actual experience we had with you during the specific time we worked together. If this section concerns you, you should plan to address any of these issues in the questions below to let us know how you want us to frame or explain these issues.

4. When should I ask a faculty member for a letter of recommendation?

We need time to write these letters. Fall tends to be the busiest letter season for us, but you should allow plenty of time between the request and the due date. Students should be aware that many faculty, including the person who sent you this document, expect 3 to 4 weeks minimum notice. We are often away from our work emails for longer during the summer because we usually work on 9-month contracts (August to May). It is vital that you contact us and receive a yes well before we receive a link from a graduate school that asks us to upload a letter. We should never receive a “surprise” email request from a program asking us to upload a letter on your behalf. If you are asking for letter with less than a 3-week window, your answers below should address why you need a “last minute letter” to ensure we understand the extenuating circumstances that affected your ability to plan ahead for this letter. Be aware that when you complete applications and insert a faculty email address, it will email us a link asking for a letter. See advice above and plan ahead to avoid the sending a faculty member a “surprise” request email.

5. How should I ask a faculty member if they would be willing to write a letter of recommendation for me?

When reaching out to faculty to request a letter, this request should be phrased as a question. The question should ask the faculty member whether they can write you a strong letter of recommendation. Assuming that the letter will be strong is not an advisable plan; you need to ask. Most faculty will decline a student’s request instead of writing a “bad” letter, but a mediocre or vague letter is also generally perceived as a bad sign by admission committees. The people reading the letter want to see concrete examples from the recommending faculty member, specific strengths and weaknesses of the applicant, and detailed information about your performance. The letter must go far beyond just indicating that you earned a good grade in a class and had strong attendance. Letters must discuss specific skills, tasks, research, etc. Letters that are brief and non-descript are not going to help your application, and these vague letters may, in fact, hurt your application. A personalized email will always be more warmly received than a generic request. Be sure to provide faculty with the info below to help them write a strong letter and ask if they need additional materials or would like to meet with you.

6. Why should I waive my right to view the recommendation letter?

It’s expected that you indicate you are waiving your right to view the recommendation. You will see this option when completing many applications. Selecting the option to waive your right may feel counterintuitive, but admission committees may be concerned that a faculty member wasn’t fully transparent or honest if this right is not waived.

We genuinely want you to succeed! Though all the info above (and questions below) may feel overwhelming, keep in mind that we are happy to write strong letters for strong students. This reason is why we created the questions below to help us write this strong letter. These letters take time for us, and we want to see your answers below to assist us in this process. We want you to make us feel confident that you understand the process and are a good candidate for the programs you are applying to. Once you have read the info above and the Graduate School FAQ, please complete the questions below. When you email us back, please attach your answers to the questions and the supporting documents mentioned at the end. The more organized and professional your response, the stronger impression we have about your professional skills.

Examples of rankings found in graduate applications

Examples of rankings found in graduate applications

Please complete the following questions and send an email/attachment with your responses. 1) If you are a current student, what is your 850 number? If you aren’t a current student, please include a copy of your transcript since it can be difficult to locate your records in SeaNet. An unofficial copy of your transcript is fine. 2) What is your earliest application deadline? 3) When did we work together and in what capacity? Please indicate the specific time range (i.e., what month and year did we start working together and when did we stop?). If you were in my class(es), please be specific about when and which ones to help me review your grades and performance in the class. 4) What is your current GPA or graduating GPA? If possible, please provide your overall GPA (found at the top of your degree audit) and your major GPA (found closer to the bottom of your degree audit where your major classes are grouped together). 5) If you don’t think your GPA reflects your academic abilities or if there are specific things you want me to address regarding GPA concerns, please explain these issues. If your GPA is a strong fit for the program, no need to address this question. 6) What are/were your major(s) and minor(s)? If you want me to speak about your other major/minor(s), please explain how your academic courses outside of psychology will help you in this opportunity. 7) I assume I will receive a link to upload your letter. If this is not the case, please provide additional info and instructions here. If they are all uploaded via an email link, there’s no need to address this question. 8) If you have submitted written assignments to me, please provide specific information about these assignments. What did you write about? What did you learn in the process? Feel free to also tell me any feedback I provided you to jog my memory. The more details you can tell me about your written work and what you learned from it, the more I can include in my letter about your writing skills. 9) If you have done a presentation in our time together, please provide specific information about this presentation. What was your presentation about? What did you learn in the process? Feel free to also tell me any feedback I provided you to jog my memory. The more details you can tell me about your oral communication skills, the better I can address this component in my letter. 10) If you did group projects in our time together, please provide specific information about this process. What was the group project? What did you learn about yourself and working on a team? Being able to collaborate is an important professional skill that is helpful to discuss. 11) Please describe several specific things you did in our time together that make you the proudest. Don’t be scared to brag on yourself. I want to know specifically what stands out to you from our time together. What I can tell a committee about our experiences together that will make you look like a strong applicant? 12) Why are you pursuing this degree/career path? If you are pursuing multiple types of programs, please explain why each one is a good fit. What are your long-term professional goals? The more I can “sell you” based on your specific goals and fit with the program, the stronger my letter will be. Programs don’t just want to see that you can be a successful graduate student, they want to know what you will be a successful in their specific program. You don’t have to include specific faculty you want to work with in the programs, but it should be clear what areas you want to pursue and why you want to pursue these areas (e.g., do you want to work with adolescents who have experienced trauma, do you want to research cognitive factors in decision making, do you want to work with children with intellectual impairments, do you want to explore the roots of implicit bias based on culture, etc.). 13) What specific experiences or qualifications can you bring to this opportunity? I would love to include details that will make you stand out among the many letters they will read. Why are you uniquely qualified? Is there any part of your identity or experiences you do or do not want me to highlight in the letter? 14) If it has been more than a semester since we worked together, please fill me in on what you have been up to since we last met. 15) Is there anything else you want me to know or things you want me to address in your letter? Feel free to include any/all info in this section that you didn’t know where to put above or just want me to know.

Please provide the following documents when responding to this document. 1) An organized list with school name, program name/degree, and due date for all letters. You should also include reasons why you are interested in that program specifically (e.g., faculty interests, renowned program, etc.). An example is shown below. • You should list out the full name of each school. For example, you should say “University of Tennessee Knoxville” not UT. UT could be several different schools. For example, UNC is not UNCW – be precise and clear with the school name. • You should list out the full name of the program. For example, say “M.A. in mental health counseling” or “Ph.D. in clinical mental health” – I want to know the full and specific name of the degree and program. • Include the due date for each application • Please send a friendly email reminder within a day or two of the due date if your letters have not been submitted. Sometimes the links don’t arrive to our email, and sometimes we just make mistakes/overlook things. Keep in mind that graduate programs will accept letters a little late; they realize that you can’t control when a faculty member submits a letter. Send a friendly reminder or two but don’t panic if it is a day or two late. School Program/Degree Due Date Reason University of M.A. in School 1/1/2021 The School Psychology program at the University Psychology Psychology of Psychology is ranked #1 in the country.

2) Your CV/resume – keep in mind that most graduate programs want to see a CV (see Graduate School FAQ for more info) so you should have one prepared by the time you are applying. Optional/Preferred Documents 3) An (unofficial) transcript. 4) Statement(s) of purpose if they help answer the questions above or give us more insight about you as a student and person (see Graduate School FAQ for more info).