Letter Of Recommendation Form: Fill & Download for Free

No.At least, I don’t.That’s probably not the answer you were expecting. I’m just being honest. Letters of Recommendation are just another “housekeeping chore” that comes with teaching. I have a form letter that I use. I change a few sentences to personalize it for the student, then send it on its way.My biggest problem is that the students tend to ask me to write on the day that they need it, so I have to drop everything to do it.They’re annoying.

You certainly can! As a matter of fact, I will be writing four letters of recommendation this season.But bear in mind that recommendation forms ask things like “how many years have you been evaluating students” and “how many students have you evaluated total.” So unless the PhD student has taught your class their recommendation may not carry much weight.

Oh, yes, it happens. It happened to me.I was an undergraduate applying for PhD programs in psychology. I had put much thought into who I wanted to ask to write my recommendations. I chose one professor who had taught me in a couple of classes, one professor who had mentored me on two research papers, and one professor who was the sponsor of a successful psychology club I had founded. The club's sponsor also happened to be the Chair of the Psychology Department, so I figured that was a nice bonus. I was wrong.After being turned down by nearly every program to which I had applied, my best friend and I got drunk one night. She convinced me to get to the bottom of what had gone so horribly wrong by opening the sealed and signed envelopes I had agreed would remain confidential. I still had a few in the trunk of my car because the club's sponsor had returned his recommendation letters to me over a week late so there had been a few schools I couldn't apply to since I'd missed the deadline. I should've thought ahead and asked a fourth professor as a backup, but I hadn't dreamed there would be a problem.I was conflicted over breaking my promise to keep the recommendations confidential but my curiosity, alcohol consumption, and my friend's urging persuaded me to read them. I was stunned. The club sponsor and chair of my department had written that he had no idea why I'd asked him for a recommendation since he'd never had me in a class and he barely knew me. It hurt. I had met with him in his office weekly for over a year while forming the club. The committee that voted to approve the club had actually said they couldn't recall ever having heard a better argument for why a new club deserved a charter or read a more well thought out and well written constitution, which I had drafted completely on my own. To have this man write that he barely knew me was baffling and devastating.My advice to anyone who is applying to a program that requires letters of recommendation is this:Ask for at least one extra letter and open that sucker. Read it before you send it. Confidentiality be damned. You have a right to know if someone is stabbing you in the back. Too much is on the line to risk someone sabotaging all your hard work.FYI, the other two letters of recommendation were glowing and their praise was so sweet it brought me to tears. That one guy was just a jerk.