{"id":1480,"date":"2025-04-22T16:38:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T20:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/~career\/blog\/?p=1480"},"modified":"2025-04-22T16:39:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T20:39:39","slug":"requesting-strong-letters-of-recommendation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/requesting-strong-letters-of-recommendation\/","title":{"rendered":"Requesting Strong Letters of Recommendation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-3006\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/files\/2025\/04\/Recommended-1024x1024.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"334\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/files\/2025\/04\/Recommended-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/files\/2025\/04\/Recommended-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/files\/2025\/04\/Recommended-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/files\/2025\/04\/Recommended-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/files\/2025\/04\/Recommended-600x600.png 600w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/files\/2025\/04\/Recommended.png 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 334px) 100vw, 334px\" \/>Applying for a job or internship?\u00a0 In most cases, employers will call your references.\u00a0 For most other competitive opportunities, chances are you will need strong and descriptive letters of recommendation to help set you apart from other applicants.<\/p>\n<p>Think you might apply to graduate or professional school, or for a national fellowship? Letters of recommendation will be critical to your candidacy.\u00a0 You might even need letters well before you graduate, i.e. for a summer research grant or enhancement program. \u00a0<strong>The bottom line: cultivate strong references while you are at UVM, and the sooner, the better<\/strong>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Professors expect to write letters, but it\u2019s your responsibility to give them something to write. \u00a0Ask good questions, and contribute to the conversations in class. Stop by office hours to clarify course material or revisit an interesting topic. Multiple contexts can also help.\u00a0 Take another class with a professor you enjoyed. If you distinguish yourself, you might be asked to serve as a TA, or assist with their research if that genuinely interests you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Consider this before asking for a letter:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What if any specific guidelines are provided?<\/li>\n<li>Who could make a convincing case you are a strong fit based on direct observations of you in class, on the job, in the lab, etc.<\/li>\n<li>A letter writer\u2019s title can be impressive, but it is their details that count.\u00a0 Don\u2019t sacrifice the latter for the former.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid personal (aka subjective) references.<\/li>\n<li>Still not sure who to ask?\u00a0 Seek advising.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/~career\/?Page=about.html&amp;SM=aboutsubmenu.html\">Graduate School<\/a> . <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/~career\/pre_health\/?Page=pre_health_contact.html\">Medical\/Dental School<\/a> . <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/honorscollege\/?Page=fellowship.html&amp;SM=oppmenu.html\">Fellowships<\/a> . <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/ccp\/biologicalscience\/undergraduate-research-and-internship-opportunities\">Research<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Help Them Help You:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ask, \u201cDo you think you could write a strong recommendation for me?\u201d\u00a0 If they can\u2019t, you want to know this outright so you can avoid bland, vague or mediocre letters.\u00a0 When you get the \u201cyes,\u201d ask if they need other information.\u00a0 Be sure to provide clear directions for submission, and plenty of lead-time.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, don\u2019t forget to thank them.\u00a0 Better yet, let them know how it all turns out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Applying for a job or internship?\u00a0 In most cases, employers will call your references.\u00a0 For most other competitive opportunities, chances are you will need strong and descriptive letters of recommendation to help set you apart from other applicants. Think you might apply to graduate or professional school, or for a national fellowship? Letters of recommendation &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/requesting-strong-letters-of-recommendation\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Requesting Strong Letters of Recommendation&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":832,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129039,129271,46458,129667,1],"tags":[116804,131420,133173,133784,138812,603,135226,135871,569,579,528],"class_list":["post-1480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-graduate-school","category-helpful-resources","category-internships","category-job-searching","category-uncategorized","tag-advice","tag-career","tag-etiquette","tag-grad-school","tag-graduate-school","tag-how-to","tag-internship-search","tag-job-search","tag-photos","tag-research","tag-tips","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"career","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/author\/career\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/832"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1480"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3007,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions\/3007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/career-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}