How to Write a Strong Recommendation Letter for a Student

A strong recommendation letter can significantly impact a student's chances of acceptance into a college, university, or program. University of Cincinnati Admissions representatives review thousands of applications each year, most of them from academically qualified candidates, and a strong letter can make a student stand out. This article provides a comprehensive guide on crafting effective recommendation letters, covering various aspects from understanding the purpose of the letter to incorporating specific examples and avoiding common pitfalls.

Understanding the Purpose and Impact

Recommendation letters play a crucial role in the decision-making processes of admissions committees, employers, funding agencies, and other organizations. These letters offer insights into a candidate's character, abilities, and potential contributions, providing a holistic view that goes beyond academic transcripts and test scores. They are particularly valuable for individuals who may not have the strongest resumes or prior credentials, as they can strengthen their overall application.

The Weight of a Recommendation

A well-crafted teacher recommendation letter can truly make a difference for a student. For students who come from low-income homes or have especially tough circumstances, it’s the opportunity to advocate on their behalf. Recommendation letters have some serious clout in the admissions process. Some colleges consider letters of recommendation pretty darn important-above class rank, extracurricular activities and, at least when it comes to the counselor recommendation, demonstrated interest.

If it comes down to your student and another candidate-all else being equal-your recommendation letter can get your student in or keep them out. Rec letters can also help decide who gets scholarships and who gets into honors programs.

Differentiating Teacher and Counselor Recommendations

As teachers, you provide a key source of information about something that test scores and transcripts can’t-your student’s role in the classroom. While the format for teacher and counselor letters of recommendation may be very much the same, the content should differ.

Read also: Creating a Strong Student Resume

Teachers, your recommendation letter should describe:

The impact this student has on the classroom
The “mind” of the student
The student’s personality, work ethic, and social conduct

On the other hand, a counselor’s letter should describe:

The student’s abilities in context, over time-how do they fit within the school’s overall demographics, curriculum, test scores?
Special circumstances beyond the classroom that impact the student

Initial Steps: Preparation and Information Gathering

Producing an effective recommendation letter involves strategy, research, and planning. Before writing, it's essential to gather relevant information about the student, the opportunity they are applying for, and the expectations of the audience.

Assessing Your Suitability

If a recommender is unable or unwilling to produce a recommendation that speaks directly to the individual applicant and position, the selection committee or potential employer may interpret this negatively. You may feel you are a “bad fit” for the student’s application. You may feel that you lack the necessary credentials to offer a compelling recommendation. For example, graduate student instructors may feel as if they cannot credibly endorse their students’ graduate school applications.

Communicating with the Student

Consider setting up a meeting. This will give you an opportunity to ask about the applicant’s academic background, professional goals, and reasons for applying. It may help to clarify whether this is a one-time request, or whether you are being asked to serve as a recommender for several applications. It’s a good idea to request to see the applicant’s resume, CV, personal statement, or other components of the application. Each of these can give you a sense of the applicant’s goals and help you decide if you would be a good recommender.

Understanding FERPA Guidelines

Many applications invite applicants to waive their right to view a letter of recommendation. You should be aware of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and your institution’s FERPA-related guidelines when writing recommendation letters. FERPA prohibits disclosure of protected student information such as grades and attendance without the student’s prior written consent. Students who want you to address protected information should specify which records you may disclose, the purpose for which the disclosure is being made, and to whom the information may be disclosed.

Researching the Opportunity

After committing to write a recommendation for an applicant, gather information about the opportunity to which they are applying. Besides asking the applicant about the organization, you may also want to reach out to someone in your own professional network who may know something about the audience or take some time to do your own research. What are the organization’s values and priorities? What information does the audience want to learn from you? Some institutions will ask you to answer specific questions about the applicant in your letter. How is this opportunity a good fit for the applicant? Referencing special features and benefits offered by a position shows that you’ve done your homework, which can add to the weight of your recommendation by demonstrating that you are willing to invest extra work in your student’s success.

Structuring the Letter

A well-structured recommendation letter typically includes an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Each section serves a specific purpose in conveying the recommender's endorsement and providing valuable insights into the applicant's qualifications.

Introduction

Hook: Start with a simile/metaphor, an absolute statement, a surprising fact, a colorful characterization.
The first line should provide the full name of the person that you are recommending.
Make the letter general so that it can be recycled for scholarships (i.e. do not put “the student would be great at your campus” because it might be used for a scholarship).
State how long you have known the student and in what context. Many high school counselors recommend beginning with a statement of how you know the student (did you teach them in a subject, coach them in a sport, or supervise them in an internship?) and for how long you’ve known them. Use the student’s full name in the first mention, then just the first name.

Body Paragraphs

Discuss the student’s work in your classroom. Is it timely, organized, creative, thorough, neat, insightful, unusual?
Describe how the student interacts with peers and adults/learning environment. Are they liked? Do they choose to associate with good people? Do they have good people skills? Do people, especially adults, trust them? Are they kind/sympathetic/considerate?
Leadership: Do they lead by example, or do they take charge? Do they work well in small groups? Participate actively and/or respectfully in whole class discussion? Work well independently? Understand how to break down complex tasks? Suggest modifications to assignments that make them more meaningful? Support weaker students?
Describe the things that you will remember about the student. Go beyond diligence and intelligence: Talk about humor, courage, kindness, patience, enthusiasm, curiosity, flexibility, aesthetics, independence, courtesy, stubbornness, creativity, etc. ALWAYS talk about work ethic if you can. ALWAYS talk about integrity, at least in passing, if you can.
Quirks are GOOD. Individuality is GOOD. It’s okay to talk about a student being obsessively into anime, or John Green novels, or Wikipedia. Talk about how they always doodle, always carry a book, play fantasy cricket. It’s good to talk about how a student deals with being different-because of their race, their sexual orientation, their religion, their disability. Do not shy away from these things. Talk about why you will MISS THEM.
Describe how the student reacts to setbacks/challenges/feedback. Detail any academic obstacles overcome, even if it is partially embarrassing, negative, or controversial. Do they take criticism well? Do they react well to a lower than expected grade? Did they ever deal with a crisis or emergency well? How do they handle academic challenges? Come to tutoring? Request extra work? If a particular area showed marked improvement over the year, explain what the student did to make it happen. Do they ask for help when needed? Do they teach themselves? Do they monitor their own learning? Do they apply feedback/learn from mistakes?
Provide evidence and examples of personal qualities. Physical descriptions can be very useful here. If this feels strange to you, Sara notes that it’s a way to make students (who may look like everyone else on paper) memorable: “When you can imagine the student who wears a cape and a fedora to school, it makes the 36 and the 4.0 a lot more interesting … we found this was a way to breathe life into applications that might have gotten lost in the shuffle by making the students human to the reader.” Think about anecdotes the student has told about their lives, ways they describe themselves, about papers/projects completed, about tutoring patterns, about the time they did something dramatic in class.
Reference significant projects or academic work, especially those that set a new bar for the class. Identify the student’s engagement, level of intellectual vitality, and learning style in your class.
If you teach English/history: You MUST address how well they read. Complex things? Archaic things? Do they see nuance and tone and subtext? You MUST also address how well they write. Is it organized? Creative? Logical? Intuitive? Functional? Do they have a strong voice? Can they be funny? Formal?
If you teach math/science: You MUST address how the student analyzes information/handles abstraction. Are they good at categorizing? At visualizing? At explaining? How do they tackle a new topic or strange problem? Think about what their homework/tests LOOK LIKE when you grade them. What does that tell you about how they think?
Include only firsthand knowledge of extracurricular involvement. No lists, please. Extracurriculars only matter because they show something about the student-a passion, a skill, a talent. The extracurricular is going away-what will they take with them? What will they bring to campus? Extracurricular achievements are best used as examples to demonstrate earlier points, not as a goal/paragraph in themselves. If you are a sponsor, think beyond the activity itself-think about reacting to setbacks, supporting team members, organizing events, making suggestions that changed how the team/group did things, setting an example, and growth over time.

Conclusion

Begin with an unequivocal statement of recommendation. “[Full Name] carries my strongest recommendation.” I am pleased to recommend [Student's Full Name] for admission to [College/University Name].
State what the student will bring to an institution (NOT why the student deserves acceptance).
Summarize the student’s qualities and accomplishments that you wish to emphasize.
End with an emotional comment-that you will miss them, that you have learned from them, that you are sorry to see them go, that they are your favorite, etc. Using the student’s full name again, encourage the college to contact you with any further questions.

Content and Tone

The content of a recommendation letter should be tailored to the specific opportunity and highlight the applicant's strengths and qualifications. The tone should be positive and enthusiastic, conveying the recommender's sincere support for the applicant's candidacy.

Providing Concrete Evidence

Keep in mind that nearly all recommendations contain a positive appraisal of an applicant’s abilities and character, and it costs recommenders almost nothing to offer general and unsubstantiated praise of an applicant. Letters that claim an applicant is “the best student I’ve ever worked with” or “the hardest working employee I’ve ever had” are likely to meet with skepticism, unless the writer includes specific evidence to back up these claims. Many different kinds of information may constitute evidence in a recommendation, and it is up to you to determine what would be most convincing to the audience.

Read also: Creating a Strong Brag Sheet

Do describe your relationship with the applicant. Say how long you’ve known the applicant and in what capacity. This information helps the audience understand how well you know the applicant. When writing a letter of recommendation, it's important to begin by clearly explaining how you know the student. This helps establish the credibility and context of your endorsement.
Do include quantitative data about a student’s performance in a class or an employee’s performance in a position. Because raw grade point averages or other performance metrics are sometimes difficult to translate across different contexts, try to rank students against other students.
Do compare applicants to students who have been placed into other positions. A statement like, “Over the past five years, other students with undergraduate research experience similar to Amer’s have been accepted to graduate programs at X, Y, and Z,” gives the audience a sense of where Amer stands in a wider population of successful students. Provide a contextual and concrete comparison of the student’s performance. Strong recommendations offer a quantitative comparison for the selection committee, for example, “in the top 3% of students in my 15 years of teaching”; “the student is among the top five I have taught over the last 10 years”;
Do mention the applicant’s personal and/or intellectual strengths as they pertain to the application. For example, it may be helpful to emphasize a study abroad applicant’s open-mindedness.
Do explain why you think the applicant is a good fit. Selection committees are often interested in hearing how students would contribute to the intellectual and professional climate of their institution. Given your experience with the student, help the audience see the type of employee or scholar the student will be: “Casey’s research experience in early-modern Arabic poetry would make them an ideal addition to Professor Seif’s Syrian cultural archival project.”
If possible, mention the position/school/fellowship by name. This proves that you’ve taken enough interest in the letter to target it for each recipient. I am pleased to recommend [Student's Full Name] for admission to [College/University Name]. In [subject/class], [Student's First Name] consistently performed at a high level, showing a deep understanding of the material and a strong work ethic. Beyond academics, [Student's First Name] is known for [his/her/their] integrity, leadership, and commitment to [specific interest or field].

Addressing Weaknesses (with Caution)

Don’t shy away from discussing the applicant’s weaknesses-but only if those weaknesses are likely to already be on the audience’s radar. For example, you may have insight into why your student received an uncharacteristically low grade in your class during their final semester that could alleviate an audience’s concerns. You may draw attention to the applicant’s growth as well as the potential for continued growth in the new position. Keep in mind, however, that recommendation letters are expected to be positive in tone, so proceed with caution when discussing applicants’ weaknesses.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Don’t rely on generalizations, clichés, or platitudes. Every good applicant will be “dedicated,” “hard-working,” and “enthusiastic.” Praise like this is likely to appear in dozens of other letters for other applicants, so you need to say more to help your applicant stand out. Include specific examples to support these descriptors. Convey the unique strengths of your student, especially any that you believe speak directly to the audience’s interests or values.
Also pay special attention to any language that may inadvertently convey gender or other biases. For example, some studies have reported that language that pertains to effort (rather than accomplishments), personal life details (rather than relevant professional information), and emotional capacities (rather than academic or professional ability) more frequently appear in recommendations for women than for men.
Don’t include too much information about you or your class.
Don’t offer tepid praise or left-handed compliments. Half-hearted comments are almost guaranteed to attract the wrong kind of attention. Although you may honestly report that your student “completed all course assignments on time” or “was an adequate writer,” the audience will likely interpret these phrases as veiled criticism. Avoiding tepid praise is more difficult than it seems. After you’ve finished writing the letter, read over it with a critical eye and try to assume the worst of the student.
Don’t simply summarize the applicant’s CV or resume. As with tepid praise, simply reiterating what the audience already knows from other parts of the application implies that you either don’t know or don’t care enough about the applicant to offer your own appraisal.
General language or overly broad descriptors of the student’s performance in the classroom.
Focusing on a student’s punctuality or ability to complete the readings. Letters should go far beyond detailing basic expectations;
Too much time and attention detailing the relationship with the student or the content of the course. Typically, two to three sentences about how you came to know the student and the focus of the course should suffice;
Backhanded compliments or faint praise. A strong letter of recommendation offers enthusiastic support for the student’s candidacy, building off of their application package and providing unique insight into their capabilities that only faculty can offer.

Formatting and Submission

After you’ve decided what to write in your recommendation, you will need to decide how to write it. How long should the recommendation be? Should it be written on official letterhead? To whom should it be addressed?

Length

Just as there is sometimes no prescribed length for application essays, there is no standard length for recommendation letters. Most recommendations tend to be around 1 to 1.5 single-spaced pages long, although some may be longer if you have a lot to share. Business and law school recommendations tend to be briefer than graduate school recommendations. Your Letter of Recommendation should be no more than three pages, have one-inch margins on all sides, be single or double spaced and use either Arial or Times New Roman font that is no smaller than 12 point.

Letterhead and Salutation

When possible, write recommendations on official letterhead and sign them using a handwritten signature. Producing letters on official letterhead both adds to your credibility as a recommender and demonstrates that you care enough about the applicant to put finishing touches on your endorsement. This may include sending an envelope with your signature across the seal. Some application programs ask recommenders to compose or paste their recommendations into online forms. In these cases, you would not submit the letter on formal letterhead. Address recommendation letters as specifically as possible. If the applicant is applying for a position within a firm or office and you know who will receive the letter, address the letter to that person, like “Dear Dr. Anderson.” If you don’t know who, specifically, will receive the letter, address the recommendation to the target audience, like “Dear Fulbright Committee”.

Closing

End the letter with a simple closing word or phrase like “Sincerely,” “Regards,” or “Cordially” or by thanking the audience for considering your endorsement. Avoid personal and emotive language.

Additional Considerations

General Recommendation Letters

Yes, you can write a general recommendation letter for multiple colleges. Although the criteria to be addressed vary depending on the opportunity, here are some general tips for writing a recommendation letter.

Following Through

If you commit to writing a letter of recommendation, follow through. Finally, consider whether you are willing to do more than write a recommendation. Students may need help with other parts of their application, such as statements of purpose or writing samples.

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