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Sample recommendation for a student. Example of a letter of recommendation

A letter of recommendation will be useful for a student to enroll in a master’s program, for employment, or transfer to another educational institution. A paper with recommendations can be written by his teacher, supervisor, who is able to correctly characterize the student and write useful recommendations for him.

A letter of recommendation is very important for a student after graduation. The graduate has no experience, so the teacher of the educational institution can evaluate his knowledge, skills and character. When looking for a new job, written references are a useful addition to your resume, in addition to your college degree. Therefore, it is recommended that after graduating from university you contact your teacher with a request to write such a paper.

Another popular reason for obtaining such a document is admission to a master’s program. Often, along with other documents, you are required to provide a letter of recommendation from the teacher.

  • title part - date, place of registration, information about the addressee, title of the document;
  • the main part - basic information about the author of the letter and the student, his characteristics and recommendations for him;
  • author's signature.

The addressee should be indicated if it is known in advance who the letter of recommendation is intended for. If there is no such information, then this detail is omitted.

In the main part, you need to indicate from whom the recommendations are being written and for whom (full name of the author of the letter of recommendation, his position, relationship to the student, his full name). You should indicate which faculty the recommended student studied in, the period of study, and what specialty you received.

The first part of the text describes the student’s knowledge and skills, describes the experience gained in practice, the success of knowledge acquisition, and academic performance. Next, an assessment of the personality is given - how he interacts with other people, the degree of conflict, and the main features are described. All this information will allow you to get the most complete picture of the student and identify his strengths and weaknesses.

The signed form is given to the student or directly to the destination.

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A letter of recommendation is a document that is perceived in two ways. In some companies it is treated as a relic from the past, in others (mostly in the West) it is a “start in life”, for example, for a student. One way or another, this application to your resume will not be superfluous.

Characteristic

A document written on behalf of the teacher might look something like this:

I, associate professor Alexey Petrovich Petrov, am a teacher of Alexander Dmitrievich Alekseev in the period 2009-2013. in the disciplines "International Tourism", "Ethics", "New Directions of Russian Tourism". During the training, I noted the high level of knowledge of Alexander Dmitrievich: written and oral exams passed with “excellent” marks; participation in city student conferences with reports: “Prospects for the development of tourism in Murmansk”, “Bringing regional tourism to the international level”, “Development of extreme tourism in the region”; successful completion of educational and practical training in the travel agencies "Russia Tour", "Around the World" as a manager.

Alexander Dmitrievich is my graduate student, his project “Rural tourism in the Murmansk region: development prospects” was awarded a unanimous rating of “5”. The student conducted his research on the basis of personally collected data and surveys, which gives his work great value.

I am confident that Alexander Dmitrievich Petrov will prove himself in his future workplace as an proactive, responsible, creative employee.

  • The high status of the referent, as well as mention of his personal acquaintance with the bearer.
  • Inclusion of opinions “from the outside”: the student’s classmates, teachers, dean’s office.
  • Specific examples of a student's achievements are a minimum of unfounded laudatory characteristics.
  • The mentioned successes should resonate with the specifics of the position being sought.
  • Description of both professional, business and personal qualities.

A letter of recommendation is a document that can help an applicant, especially abroad. Its substantive, stylistically correct, well-founded content often serves as the main factor for the employer’s decision-making.

[Updated 09/2018]

What is important for the admissions committee of a foreign university when your grades, motivation letter and CV have already been reviewed? What will give them additional information about you to make an admission decision?

At this stage, the decisive role is often played letter of recommendation- a document that is not inferior in importance to a motivation letter, and, other things being equal, can tilt in your favor if the recommendation is correctly presented.

In my considerable experience of working with applicants to master’s programs abroad, I realized that in Russian universities there is no culture of preparing for students letter of recommendation or reference. In most cases, the teacher simply offers to sign the letter written by the student. And the student, who previously had to prepare a whole package of documents, must also write letters of recommendation for himself. And very few manage to avoid repetition, cliched phrases and too vague characteristics (because all the best goes into the motivation letter!).

Wherein, in the West, letters of recommendation are treated with great respect- both when writing (the teacher you contact for a recommendation will take it as an honor and will be ready to take the time to prepare a solid letter), and when reviewing (in addition to your personal presentation of your successes and achievements, it is important for the commission to receive an assessment from the outside) .

How important is a letter of recommendation in a set of documents?
For the admissions committee, recommendations are additional information about the applicant, which can confirm or supplement data from other documents. And this information is very important, because it is provided on behalf of those who saw you “at work.”

To help those who are currently enrolling in a master's program abroad, I have prepared a number of tips on drawing up recommendations. Use them and you can prepare a solid document that will complement your application for admission!

1. Selection of referents

Behind the scenes, the higher status from the referent, the more solid the letter of recommendation will look. The admissions committee of any university or scholarship fund will definitely pay attention to this.
But at the same time, a more important criterion is that How well does the referee really know you? and can assess your potential. If you choose between the dean of the faculty who did not teach you a single course, and the teacher who taught you a number of disciplines throughout all your years of study, choose the second one. Such a letter of recommendation looks much more respectable in the eyes of the admissions committee.
And of course, try to choose teacher in one of your key subjects or in the specialty for which you are going to enroll. For example, a common mistake of applicants is to take a recommendation from an English teacher. This is fundamentally wrong, since the commission wants to know not how well you have learned English (for this there is official confirmation through international language exams), but how much you have knowledge, skills and abilities relevant to the program. The only case when it is relevant to choose a language teacher as a referent is if you are enrolling in philology or a similar specialty.

As a result, if, when choosing a referent, you manage to combine all 3 conditions, as described above, then the letter of recommendation will be the most advantageous.

2.1 How to prepare text easier

If the teacher told you to prepare the text yourself, then the easiest way for you to do this will be to collecting opinions from outside. Even your classmates, friends, colleagues can help you with this - those who know you and can appreciate your potential and your personal qualities. Ask what, in their opinion, are your strengths, what would they emphasize when characterizing you? If it’s uncomfortable to ask this question directly, then do a small online survey (iQuestionnaire, SurveyMonkey, etc.) and simply send it to your friends, explaining why you need it. Once you have collected several opinions, you will already have a basis for your letters of recommendation.
Otherwise, if you rely only on your perception, then it will be difficult for you to prepare both your motivation letter and two recommendations at once. Even if this is successful, you can almost always understand that all documents were written by one person.

Make a plan, in which you will briefly outline what details you will include in each of the letters: in the motivational essay, in both letters of recommendation. Of course, some information will overlap in all documents, but since it is assumed that all 3 letters were prepared from different persons, accordingly, the angles, method of presentation, expressions, etc. should be different. Having a general plan will make it easier for you to understand what to include in your own motivation letter and what to leave for each of the recommendations.

- Specific examples
A very common mistake in recommendations is to list all possible laudatory characteristics, separated by commas, without giving any examples (we very often see the following formulation in letters: “the student has proven himself to be capable, talented, hardworking, thoughtful, with high potential and leadership qualities”). This is the “dead” weight of the letter, which has almost no value in the eyes of the commission.
To bring these characteristics to life, it is imperative to provide specific examples to support them. If it is written that the student is goal-oriented, this needs to be explained; if the teacher believes that the student has leadership qualities, it must be proven; If he recommends continuing your studies in a master's program, you need to clarify why. Examples make the characteristics truly credible.

- Information about successes, achievements relevant to the selected program
The volume of a letter of recommendation is usually 1 page of text, so there is simply no room to list all the merits, successes and characteristics. That is why the text of the letter must be tailored to the requirements of the program.
If, for example, you are enrolling in finance, then special emphasis should be placed on analytical skills, the ability to work with numbers and analyze a large amount of information. Usually, the websites of the programs themselves indicate which qualities are primarily important for applicants.

- Characteristics of professional and personal qualities
The fact that you have well-developed analytical skills, you can absorb a huge amount of professional material, and have an excellent command of research methods, etc. - this is what interests the admissions committee in the first place. But, having received this information, the commission members want to know what kind of person is coming to them. This is a potential future representative and face of our university - how well does he fit our culture, the image of our university? Therefore, in letters of recommendation it is very important to indicate personal qualities - how well you can work in a team or individually, how developed are your communication skills... This information should logically complement your profile, and of course, should correlate with what you wrote in your motivation letter.

3.1 Allow more time than expected to prepare recommendations
(very often you will need to additionally either agree on the text with the teacher, who may be away, or wait for a signature and seal in the dean’s office for a whole week)

3.2 Check in advance in what form letters of recommendation are required to be provided to all universities where you are applying:
- in a free format or in a special form of the university of your choice,
— is it enough to upload a scan of the recommendations online or do you need to send the originals by mail,
— Is it possible to upload letters yourself or can only the teacher do this through his official university email.
It is better to find out all this in advance in order to immediately understand how many sets of documents to prepare and in what format, and agree with the teachers accordingly.

3.3 After you have fully prepared all the main documents (motivation letter, CV and recommendations), check how logically all the information is connected, whether there are any discrepancies or excessive repetition. This is a ‘reality check’ before sending a set of documents.

Comprehensive information on each document for admission (motivation letter, essay for business schools, letters of recommendation, resume), on how to choose a program and correctly prepare the entire application - in an online course from our experts

Letter No. 1

Ksenia Aleksandrovna Vorontsova graduated from Moscow State University in 2014 with a degree in International Journalism. Over the years of study, Ksenia Vorontsova has proven herself to be a responsible and purposeful student who strives not only to accumulate knowledge, but also to apply it in practice.

Ksenia studied excellently and at the same time took an active part in the life of the university. From her third year onwards, she headed the student union of the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, organized concert events, did charity work and blogged on the university website.

We would also like to note Ksenia’s wide range of interests. In addition to the main lectures, the student attended electives in Spanish and Polish, and achieved good results in their study.

Sincerely,

Alexander Viktorovich

Letter No. 2

Aleksey Sergeevich Belousov graduated from Voronezh National University in 2014 and received a bachelor’s degree in “Urban Environment and Interior Design.”

Teachers who gave lectures and conducted practical classes with Alexey noted his determination and great creative potential. Alexey chose the right profession and will undoubtedly achieve good results in it.

Alexey was responsible for his studies, received good grades and stood out among his classmates during practical classes.

Sincerely,

Alexander Viktorovich

If you are thinking about enrolling in a higher education institution, it would be a good idea to have with you letter of recommendation for admission to university. This is especially true if you want to enroll in a university abroad, where a letter of recommendation can play a decisive role. The chances of successful admission can increase many times over if you apply correctly.

This is relevant not only for admission to higher education institutions abroad, but also for Russian universities. The letter of recommendation may be from the military unit in which the applicant served. If he receives a letter in which the recommendations are positive, the future student has every chance of receiving benefits during his studies.

For a university, this document is of great value, since it indicates the personal characteristics of the applicant, and from them one can trace the inclinations and abilities of the future student. The management of the university will be able to understand the positive and negative sides of a person, and based on these data, make an appropriate conclusion about whether to accept him for study or not.

First you need to find out how you can get this document. If the applicant is a graduate of a school or college, first of all you can ask the director for a letter of recommendation; in extreme cases, you can ask the teacher to write the letter himself. If a person is already a graduate of a university, it is best to contact a supervisor. For employees, it is best to contact their employer. For military personnel - to the unit where he is serving.

The tips below are best used if you want to write a letter of recommendation that is as informative as possible.

  • If you have the opportunity to choose a person who will write a letter of recommendation for you, then it is best to contact higher-ranking persons. Recommendations from such people will be much more meaningful.
  • It is imperative to indicate the person who wrote the letter of recommendation, as well as his position in relation to the person for whom the letter is being written.
  • It is necessary to describe the character traits of the applicant. It is best if this is not a simple enumeration. You can describe specific situations where a person showed himself in one way or another, where it was proven that he has the necessary character traits that are described in the letter. The less formulaic the letter is written, the better. If the description makes the reader pay attention to the applicant, then we can say that the letter was written successfully. You need to know how to write a letter of recommendation, it is not that easy.
  • It would be good if the letter indicated the person’s previous achievements and successes. You can provide a list of successes that the applicant has achieved in the previous time, as well as provide evidence.
  • Description of the professional knowledge that the applicant has. You can list a person’s inclination towards this or that science, which comes easiest to him.
  • To compose a letter most effectively, you need to focus on the future specialty that the applicant wants to enroll in.
  • Write basic recommendations based on the information presented above. It is the recommendations that will serve as the main conclusions for the management of the university.