Asking for Recommendations

First step:  Choosing who to ask.

The best recommendations come from those who know you the best. But you also want to try to get experienced faculty to write them for you.  Short, form-letter type references don’t look good, even if they come from respected and well-known people.  But you also want to avoid letters written from lower-level faculty (lecturers). 

If you ask someone non-academic to write a recommendation for you, this person should know you very well and be able to speak to your leadership abilities, volunteer activities, or some other non-academic aspect of your resume that bears importance on your application to the specific scholarship.  Some scholarships will specify what type of recommenders you need.  All will specify how many you need, which can be any number from 2 to 8.

Next:  How to ask.

Contact your references early.  Give them information about the scholarship for which you are applying and provide them with your academic records, plus any drafts of application essays you’ve already written.  You also need to supply them with any forms they need, along with properly addressed and stamped envelopes. 

Some scholarships even provide websites for recommenders. Provide printouts or links to your references.  Make sure that you give them the necessary information about deadlines as well. If your required recommendation letters are late, scholarship selection committees will not even consider your application.

Lastly, keep in touch.

Most likely, your references will be more than happy to help you with the application process.  Some will volunteer to read over essays or discuss research proposals with you.  As a courtesy, you should keep your references informed about the progress of your application.  They may also want to help you with the interview process as well, should you make it to that stage.

Don’t forget to say “thank you.”  You should send thank you notes to all of your references, regardless of your success with the application process.

The Office of External Scholarships has resources to help references with letters of recommendation targeted to specific scholarships. Please inform your references that we would be happy to provide them with materials to advise them in the letter writing process.

The Overseas Resource Center at Stanford University also has a great document to help writers of recommendations, which you may wish to provide to your references.  You can find the file here: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/icenter/orc/scholarships/Recommenders.pdf