Cross-course pages: text

(Last updated: Sep 28, 2015)

Process

I used to write about 60 letters every year but that number has been increasing and online portals are asking more questions than in the past. Even the easiest of recommendation letters takes an hour minimum start to finish and most take quite a bit more than that. There is no such thing, by the way, as just "sending off a copy" to another institution.

Also, I don't write form letters. Letters that are very speciically about you have proven to be effective. But, to handle the mess of it, I make some requests, as below. ... This is not meant as an indirect "please don't contact me" statement. It just explains why I have had to put a process in place to manage the paperwork and make sure everything gets done on time.

Also, can you please contact me if you have decided not to apply after all?

Contact me early

By "early" I mean about a three weeks ahead of time in most cases. Things happen, though. If you ask less than a week before a deadline, I may say no and, even if I say yes, the quality of the letter will be not what it could have been.

Contacting and reminding me

Write me early, then remind me 2 weeks ahead of when you need the letter or 3 weeks if it is graduate school because those types of letters tend to take much longer than others. By "graduate school" I mean programs besides business, law or medical school. Even if we have talked recently about it, please send me a reminder by email. If you can remember to do so another request one week ahead is welcome. I appreciate reminders.

Correspondence: subject line

Please email me at my berkeley.edu address (so, no texts or messages please) and use this subject line (because I can manage my to do list right away, can search predicatably for things, etc.):

Recletter SLOT-1 SLOT-2 TRACKING due SLOT-3 (SLOT-4) by SLOT-5

Examples (the slots are defined beneath these examples):

Recletter POLK Alicia TRACKING due April 8 2015 (April 15) by envelope to me, which means I am to hand the letter and form inside a sealed envelope to Alicia on April 8 and her hard deadline is that she must postmark all the material by April 15.

Recletter POLK Alicia TRACKING due April 8 2015 (April 8) by URL, which means I am to go to the URL link that was sent to me by someone (usually the institution) and complete the online application by April 8 which is the actual deadline.

Recletter POLK Alicia TRACKING due April 8 2015 (April 15) by envelope dropped into the mail, which means I am to get a letter into the mail system on April 8 so that it can arrive by the deadline which is really April 15. If "post-marked by" is the deadline then the two dates will be the same.

Here are the specifics on the " slots" above.

SLOT-1: Your last name, in CAPS is nice if you can remember to do so.

SLOT-2: Your first name as I know it.

SLOT-3: This is the date by which you need the materials completed. It is possible you are applying to more than one program. You can put them all in one email BUT USE THE EARLIEST DATE (among them) PLEASE! Set a date that follows these guidelines:

• If I submit electronically count backwards 3 days from the due date (because some sites close over the weekend and holidays, or after 5PM or are on international time)
• If I am to postmark the letter by a certain day, count backwards 0 days from the due date unless the due date is a weekend or holiday (yes, institutions make this sort of mistake).
• If I am to mail to the Bay Area, count backwards 2 days from the due date (pay attention to Sundays and holidays).
• If I am to mail to somewhere else in America, count backwards 7 days from the due date.
• If I am to mail overseas, count backwards 14 days from the due date.
• If I am to hand off to you, think about when you need the letter and think about when we will be on campus together. Be aware of weekends and holidays.
• If I am to mail to you and you are in the Bay Area, count backwards 2 days from when you need the letter (pay attention to Sundays and holidays)
• If I am to mail to you and you are elsewhere in America, count backwards 7 days from when you need the letter.
• If I am to mail to you and you are overseas, count backwards 14 days from when you need the letter.

SLOT-4: The actual deadline (for rolling deadlines tell me so and give a reasonable date, such as "rolling, first week of May?")

SLOT-5: Choose one of these when possible: "envelope to me" "URL" "envelope dropped into the mail"

Correspondence: content

1. At the top of the email even before you say hello, please:

Give me a list not as an attachment but inside the email of institutions to which you are applying and their due dates. If you have contacted me with this information but later add institutions please resend the full list when you add to it.

Next, cut-and-paste the below into your email, and complete it.

Are there emails I should have received or should soon get? Explain (for each institution).

Classes (number and semester) you have taken with me:

Have I written a letter for you before? (When):

Ways of contacting you on short notice in the week ahead of the due date:

Complete the below portion of the recommendation letter as many times as necessary, as in the example

(address)

Dear Admissions Committee,

(your full name as on the application) has asked that I write a letter in support of his application to (name of institution)'s program in (name of program), to work towards a degree in (name of degree), beginning in (year the program begins or Fall / Spring plus the year the program begins).

2. The body of your email

Here you can say whatever you want, explaining the situation.

3. Attachments

I appreciate but do not require CVs, transcripts, statement of purposes, past essays written, etc. Your call on these.

My contact info

Institutions usually ask for my address, email, sometimes my phone, and my title. So here you go (written a little bit in code so crawling search engines aren't grabbing my cell number all the time): use the dept office address—my rm is 5510; use my berkeley-dot-edu email; use our local area code and add it ahead of 972 dash 3339. My title is "Continuing Lecturer" or "Lecturer" when space is limited.

Special request

Please give me completed forms (and mention in your email that you have done so if possible)! Not doing usually lowers slightly the level of my recommendation.

Waiver of rights to see the content of the letter

It is the student’s choice whether or not to waive his or her right to read the letter that I write for them. I feel I write better letters when I don’t have to visualize “double readers” (how will the admissions committee interpret this sentence? how will the student interpret this same sentence?) I feel the prose is more natural and persuasive when I can treat the admissions committee as the king/queen to whom I am talking. Also, some faculty say that letters where students have not waived their rights are taken less seriously. I have no real proof of this one way or the other but it is something to keep in mind. Most forms and Web sites tell me what you have done but you might want to include it in this email, too. JET does not ask for a statement on this. I write JET letters assuming you will not open the envelope before forwarding it to the institution.