Rec Letters

Letters of recommendation are a crucial part of your academic and professional journey. They provide insight into your intellectual curiosity, work ethic, and potential that extend well beyond the grades on your transcript. In my experience, a strong recommendation is built on a foundation of genuine engagement and personal connection. While a good grade in one of my courses is a piece of this puzzle, I cannot write a strong letter on the basis of your grade alone, and this is already covered in your application through transcripts regardless.

Building a Relationship

While I do my best to make my courses active and more personal, the reality is that even if you take my course and you participate in your groups or in full class discussions, I won't have the basis to write a personal recommendation letter for you, and may not even know your name if I see you out on campus. Students who receive strong letters from me have likely done one (or more!) of the following:

• Worked with me as a CA - Not everyone can be a CA for my course, but if you are, we've likely built a strong personal relationship where I get to see your work ethic, creativity, and professionalism.
• Worked on a research project with me - Similar to being a CA, working on a research project with me will give me a basis to evaulate your personal traits that I can write about in a letter.
• Be on a first name basis with me by talking to me after class/in drop-in hours - The large-scale nature of the courses I teach means that I don't typically know most of my students on a first-name basis. There are sometimes a select few students who I get the chance to know well, whether it be through chatting before/after class, in drop-in hours, or other times. Knowing your name is not enough though, as to write a letter, I need more than your final grade. Discussions in my office will give me a sense of your research interests, career goals, or future coursework. For most students, I don't have this basis for a rec letter.

Not meeting one of these criteria doesn't mean you are a bad student, it just means I don't have the proper background to write anything more about you than your final grade in my course.

Requesting a Letter

If you believe you are a strong candidate for a letter of recommendation based on the criteria above, please consider the following steps to request a letter:

• Reach out to me via email at least 4 weeks before your first deadline, and write the email yourself (it's obvious when you use ChatGPT). I will not write a letter on shorter notice. You must indicate in your email that you have read this page on my website.
• If I've agreed to write you a letter, please create a Google Drive folder entitled "Your Name Recommendations" (e.g. "Cade Smith Recommendations") which has the following:
  • A Google Sheet with a row for each program you are applying to. It should have the following columns:
    • Program name
    • A link to the program info page
    • Submission deadline
    • Submission process (e.g. direct email, link given, link automatically sent via email, someone from program will contact me, etc.)
    • Submission link (if needed)
    • A checkbox column so I can check off when I've submitted the letter
  • Your current CV/resume.
  • Your current transcript.
  • A Google Doc that includes your name as it will appear on the application, pronouns, and anything I should know about what you have done with me that I should include in the letter. Important: I will not speak to what I have not personally observed, but this is your chance to make sure I highlight relevant experiences on your letter!
  • Any additional materials (essays, personal statements) that you are using to apply to the programs.
• Share this Google Drive folder with me, and then send me an email when you have completed uploading all of the materials above in the folder.
• You must have this Google Drive folder completed within 3 weeks of the first deadline.

Letter process adapted from Jessica Sidman's and Audrey St. John's personal webpage. Thanks for the guidance you gave to a young, naive undergraduate REU student years ago!