I am happy to provide letters of recommendation to outstanding students for admission to graduate school, selection for fellowships, scholarships, and awards, or to serve as a reference for professional opportunities on or off-campus. The process of asking for a letter of recommendation can often be confusing for students, especially first-generation students or those without strong cultural capital networks or for those who feel they are burdensome and "asking for a favor" (you aren't!) In the interest of transparency and evening the playing field, here are my guidelines for how to ask for a letter of recommendation for me. (I highly encourage you to follow these best practices when asking for any recommendation or reference from anyone!)
Frequently asked questions.
- Why should I ask you for a letter of recommendation?
You can ask any faculty for any reason for a recommendation, but I encourage you to ask me if you performed at a very high or excellent level in my class (A- grade or higher) and/or I have known you for more than one semester (have taken more than one class with me). You should also prioritize asking faculty that you know outside of class (visited their office hours frequently; worked for them as a research assistant, etc). I may write limited letters for students that have never taken a class with me if I know you extremely well through extracurricular activities or community organizing. However, it will depend on the opportunity you are applying for (research graduate programs, for example, should prioritize letters from faculty who can directly evaluate your research and writing skills).
General advice: If you are applying to graduate school, your letter writers should have graduate degrees unless noted in the application that professional or community references are allowed. If you are applying to a PhD program, you should prioritize letter writers with PhDs, ideally in tenure-track positions. Professional degree programs like law school, MPP MPHs, etc. may have different requirements. The subject matter of the class you took with me does not have to align with what you are hoping to do in graduate school or your job, but I should be able to speak to your performance as a student aligned with the expectations of the opportunity you are asking me to recommend you for.
- When do I ask for a letter of recommendation?
Full letter request: If you need a full letter of recommendation written (1-2 pages) and/or a form filled out for things like graduate school admissions or a scholarship, I require 4-6 weeks notice. Sometimes you may not hear about an opportunity until close to the deadline, in which case you should ask as soon as possible, ideally at least 10 days-2 weeks notice. Even if I have already written you a letter, I still need advance notice as I tailor each letter to the specific school or opportunity.
Job references: For opportunities that do not require a letter but simply require you put my name down as a reference, you may ask on short notice, but still allow me 48-72 hours to reply (more on weekends or over campus closure dates/summer).
Never put my name down (or any reference down) without first asking my explicit permission. Do not put my name into a graduate application and have it auto-generate a form to me before first asking me if I can serve as a reference.
- How do I ask for a letter of recommendation?
If you are a current student enrolled in my class: You may ask at office hours or over email. If in person, I will request an email follow up with the details.
If you are no longer my student: You may ask over email (or if you're still around Humboldt feel free to stop by in person!) If it has been over a year since you were in my class, please send me a few words in that email to remind me our relationship (what class(es) you enrolled in, any notable things I would remember about your performance).
When asking for a recommendation, please address your email to me with a descriptive email subject ("Letter of recommendation request for grad school,") address me by name ("Hi Professor Kirk," "Dear Dr. Kirk" etc.) and provide as much detail to me as possible in the email about what you are asking for. I encourage you to use bold, highlights, etc to pull out important information like deadlines to make it easier for me to see.
- Do I need to provide anything for you to write me a letter?
For graduate school, fellowships, etc.: I will ask for your transcript, CV and your statement of purpose (potentially your personal statement) or other written material you are submitting so that I can directly connect my letter to your stated goals for yourself in this opportunity. You may provide this in draft form and I may ask you to follow up with more detail. Depending on how long it has been since you were enrolled in my class, I may also ask you for copies of assignments you submitted if I no longer have access to them on Canvas.
For job references: I may ask for your resume depending on the job. A description of the job is useful, as well as whether the job will be reaching out over email, via phone, etc. and what timeline I might expect to hear from them.
- Would it be easier if I just wrote the letter and you can sign your name?
I will never ask you to write your own letter of recommendation, and I will not sign my name to letters I have not written. I will ask you for materials that you have written (for the application and/or for my class) so that I can quote from them directly and integrate them into my recommendation.
- Can I ask you for more than one letter to apply to multiple programs?
- You wrote me a letter years ago, can you resubmit that same one now?
Yes, I am happy to serve as a reference for the same student multiple times. If you are applying to several graduate schools in one admissions cycle, for example, please send me all of the deadlines and materials in one email or on the same email thread. If you are applying to multiple jobs, I request you still notify me of every job you are putting me down as a reference for -- sending running updates on an email thread or having a Google spreadsheet you update as you apply can be useful here.
If I previously served as a letter writer for you, I will usually agree again unless significant circumstances have changed on either end. For instance, if you apply to grad school one year but reapply the next year, I can write for you again. However, letters can "expire" (grad school admissions committee can tell when a letter is years out of date) so please reach out to make sure I update my letter and give me any updates on what you have been doing in the interim since I last wrote one for you.
- It is (x) number of days before the deadline and you still haven't submitted your letter. I'm worried!
Writing letters of recommendation is a required part of my job. Rest assured that if you asked me and I agreed to serve as a recommender, I will submit it by the deadline. Depending on my workload and other life obligations, that may mean submitting it several weeks in advance, while other times it may not be until the day (or even the hour) the letter is due. I highly encourage you to set reminders on your calendar to kindly and politely send reminders to your recommender(s) to submit their letters. You can even use Gmail's "email scheduler" function to pre-schedule reminders -- I recommend sending one 2 weeks , 1 week, and 3 days before the deadline.
- Can you just send me the letter you wrote for me and I can save it and reuse it for future opportunities?
- Can I read the letter of recommendation you wrote for me?
I require all students to waive their right to see the letter of recommendation and will not provide my letter to the student directly. This is for your benefit -- graduate schools often weigh the value of a letter a student has seen as less worthy because it is seen as potentially "biased" as a recommender may be hesitant to give their true opinion of the student when they know the student will read what is written. I will never agree to write you a letter unless I can speak highly of you, so you can be assured I am submitting you a strong recommendation. If you are hoping to have a letter uploaded to Interfolio or similar to submit to several places, please speak with me directly about the possibility. Similar to above, letters can "expire" so letter storage systems can sometimes be more of a hindrance to students than helpful if the letters stored in the database are too old.
- Do you decline requests for recommendation and why?
I may decline requests for recommendation for reasons including: I do not feel I am well-suited to speak to your strengths as an applicant either due to observed performance or lack of knowledge about you as a candidate; I do not have sufficient notice to write a strong recommendation by the deadline; or you are applying to an opportunity that I cannot endorse pursuing. I will not write recommendations for "cash cow" graduate programs that leave students in high levels of debt with poor post-grad career opportunities unless I have explicitly spoken to you and you understand the potential risks. I also reserve the right to not serve as a reference for job opportunities that I cannot ethically endorse. You should always have a list of potential recommenders longer than the minimum requirement for the opportunity you are pursuing in case one or more recommenders cannot serve.
- I got into the grad school you wrote a letter to/got the job you served as a reference for! Yay!
Yay! I am so proud of my students who achieve their goals and am honored to play a tiny role in helping you succeed. I love to hear about my students who go on to do amazing things (and the track record of students I have recommended to programs is strong!) It is polite to let your recommenders know of any successful outcomes of your grad school/job search and even to send a short thank you email or a written note after. (Gifts are highly unnecessary.) Please reach back out even if years later to let me know how you are doing, I love to hear how my former students are doing.
- I'm not sure what I want to do, if I want to go to grad school -- can I talk to you about what opportunities are out there?
- I know what I want to do but I need help with writing the materials. Can you give me feedback on my CV, statement of purpose, etc?
I am always happy to talk to current and former students about their future endeavors. I love researching opportunities for students with students. My former students have ended up in diverse settings, from research and professional master's and PhD programs to law school, non-profit and government work, and more. I'm happy to chat with students about what paths life might take for you professionally even if you are interested in pursuing opportunities outside of my area of research. If you are interested in studying or working on similar things, I am often happy to introduce students to potential graduate mentors or recommend programs where my close colleagues work. If you already know you are applying and you have application materials you would like feedback on, I am happy to give that specialized feedback within reason (enough notice to give useful feedback; dependent on my workload). Students still enrolled at Humboldt should attend my office hours to talk about opportunities and/or ask for feedback on application materials. Former students can still request this assistance over email and we will try to find a time to talk live over Zoom or work asynchronously (within reason). Please do not cold-solicit me for feedback on application materials or expect detailed copy edits of these materials without us having a live conversation and you putting in effort to work on them with me.