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RECOMMENDATION POLICY

I am happy and honored to serve as a reference or write letters of recommendation in support of graduate programs, professional opportunities, and internship programs. To ensure that the letter of reccomendation is useful for you and that I have enough information, please read and follow the guidelines.

Am I the right person to ask for a recommendation?

A letter of recommendation letter should be from an instructor, mentor, advisor, or supervisor who knows you and your abilities very well. In general, the better a recommender know you, the better they will be able to speak to your abilities and characteristics (e.g., work ethic, critical thinking, collaboration, etc.) that make you an ideal candidate for any academic or profesisonal role you are pursuing.

To ensure that I am able to give the best recommendation possible, I have set a few guidelines:

Intructor/Supervisor Relationship: As a general rule, I require that students seeking a letter of recommendation from me to have either taken two or more courses that I have taught or served as the primary teaching assistant. This allows me to comment on your abilities and character across multiple classes.
- Research Assitants and Interns are also encouraged to reach out to me if I served as a direct supervisor during your internship or project!

Academic Performance: Many graduate and academic internship programs will often ask for recommendation letters to rank students in comparison to other students that they have taught or supervised. As a result, your academic performance matters significantly. I will be able to write a stronger letter of recommendation for students who receieved higher grades in my courses. Generally, if you received a final grade of B (85) or lower in the courses, you may be better served by approaching someone else to write a letter of recommendation.

Personal Interaction: To write a good recommendation letter, I should a have personal sense of who you are beyond a numerical grade. Before approaching me, consider did we have any significant meaningful interactions in class? Did you schedule time during office hours with me to discuss your future goals and outside interests? A final grade in a course, is often not enough for me to write about you, your work, and your suitability for a particular position.

How to request a letter?

When requesting a letter of recommendation, please reach out to me at alex [at] ict [dot] org [dot] il. In your request, please provide me with some information about how the letter will be used. Some pertinent details to include would be, but are not limited to:

What program/course of study/school/position/etc. you are applying for?
What is your motivation for the the program/course of study/school/position/etc.?
Are there any special skills that are required of the position that you think that it would make sense for me to discuss?
When is the deadline for submission?
What is the method of submission (pre-filled form, send via email, send to the admissions committee/specific person)?
If you are applying to multiple places/positions at once and would like me to write a letter of recommendation for each, please list all of them.

Request Timeline

To ensure that I have adequate time to write a recommendation letter, I generally require at least 14 working days notice, so please let me know as early as possible. Additionally, if I am unable to write you a letter of recommendation, asking well in advance of the deadline will give you adequate time to seek out others to write a letter.

Once I have confirmed that I will write the letter, I will try to keep you updated regarding its submission status. If you do not receive a confirmation email from me or the organization that the letter has been sent, please reach out to me at least three business days prior to the deadline.

What do I need to write the letter?

In order to craft an effective recommendation letter, it is helpful to have other information. If I have agreed to write a letter of recommendation, and where possible, please share:

A copy of your unofficial transcript
Your resumé/CV
A copy of the letter/application you are submitting
A copy or draft of any personal statements that will be submitted with your application

Confidentiality

As a general practice, I treat letters of recommendation as confidential and do not share them with current or former students. This should not be understood as meaning the content of the letter will be negative. If I do not think that I can provide a positive recommendation letter, I will simply tell you that I cannot write a letter on your behalf.

References & General Information

In certain cases, applications will request the names of references (names and contact information) to be contacted at a later date, rather than a specific letter of recommendation. If you would like to list me as a reference, please reach out to me at alex [at] ict [dot] org [dot] il to confirm and send me the relevant details on the application/opportunity so that I can reference them if I am contacted to speak about your application.

Thank you for reading through and adhering to this recommendation/reference policy. If you have any further questions that are not answered by this policy, please reach out at alex [at] ict [dot] org [dot] il.

Recommendation policy inspired by and adapted from examples by Danielle Gilbert, Kai M. Thaler, and Evan Perkoski.