Guidelines for letters of recommendation for our graduate program in CJ

Based on the many questions I have received from applicants and potential letter writers, I have composed the following FAQ regarding letters of application.

How many letters of recommendation do I need for your program?

We require three. If you wish, you may submit four, but we do not recommend going overboard. I saw one application with more than 20 letters attached to it, many of which were xeroxes of letters written for the applicant in the past for assorted work positions and for other non-academic purposes. That's way too many and most of them were outdated or inappropriate.

I want a strong application. From whom should I obtain letters of recommendation?

As many letters as possible should come from your former professors, at least two of the three. If given a choice of several faculty, the ones under whom you worked as a research assistant or TA are usually good sources for letters as are professors from whom you took a number of courses, especially if they involved writing research papers. Faculty whose courses you barely passed, of course, are typically weak sources for letters.

The best letters are from those who can knowingly comment on your ability to succeed in a competitive graduate program in our field. This rules out friends, family, clergy, and many co-workers who might be able to testify at length about your moral development, dedication to volunteering in the community and abilty to be a good shoulder to cry on, but often cannot speak to your academic abilities.

I graduated in 1963. My favorite professor, doc Smith, is in the Shady Hills Rest Home by now. What do I do?

This is a real situation for some of our applicants, especially those who have been in the work force for a number of years. If you are an applicant seeking to return to college after a significant lapse in time, you will have to seek letters from other sources. Have you taken substantial training courses as part of your work? One applicant to our program had taken a several week course in police management offered by a university/police consortium and which involved a significant final project. The instructors for such a course could be excellent sources for letters of recommendation because they have seen you in a high-level education setting and can knowingly comment on your potential for success in graduate school. Another source is work supervisors, as discussed below.

I can't get a hold of any of my former professors because I graduated four years ago and besides, they'll never remember me. What should I do?

Believe it or not, most faculty remember students from many years ago. I still have fond (and not so fond) memeries of students of mine from the late 1980s, especially those who worked on research projects with me. Likewise, while making a presentation at a recent professional conference, I was rather surprised when a woman jumped up in the middle of the fourth or so row and took a flash photo of me while I talked, excitedly telling the incredulous audience that I had been her student in 1985. Though 20 years had passed, she remembered me and was excited that I had "done good" and became a professor. Apparently, she had been skimming the presentation schedule and recognized my name and came to my talk to verify that it was really me. I had no contact with her between the time I took her class and the conference. So, faculty really do remember students over long periods of time.

Before giving up completely, you should send an email or make a phone call to see if your professors are still teaching and whether they would be willing to write a letter for you. You might be surprised by their memories.

I tried to contact my former professors but they have retired or no longer feel able to write a letter for me because they can't remember me well enough. What should I do?

If you can't get letters from former professors and haven't attended any substantial training courses, you'll need to rely on alternative sources for letters: supervisors and others who can comment on your ability to succeed in graduate school.

The best letters from co-workers are from those who are in a position to evaluate your work, typically supervisors. Those who are not above you in the workplace hierarchy likely don't have access to the sort of materials or information that is necessary to write a strong letter. Do your co-workers really know how valuable you are to your agency/office? Your supervisors do, especially those who have had to evaluate your work as part of their own duties. The difference is simple: who can best evaluate your academic performance, your professor or one of your own classmates who has likely never seen one of your papers or exams? You should avoid seeking letters from those who are equal to you in the workplace hierarchy and seeking letters from those who are below you in the hierarchy can be dangerous (some worksites actually consider that to be inappropriate, which can result in disciplinary action against you).

Okay, I'm going to seek a letter from a work supervisor. There are so many to choose from at my office. Any advice on which ones to approach first?

Among supervisors, the best ones are those with whom you have worked for long periods of time, those for whom you have engaged in tasks similar to what you will be doing in graduate school (research, writing, etc) and those who have formally evaluated your work. A letter written by a supervisor who can only rave about your wonderful way of dealing with customers on the telephone or how you never miss a day of work will be less valuable, for example, than a letter written by a supervisor under whom you completed as assessment of your city's capacity to address homelessness or under whom you drafted a protocol for digital photography of evidence or under whom you conducted 15 interviews with single parents as part of a larger evaluation or under whom you wrote many memos detailing important office business. Also, supervisors who are too far above you in the hierarchy might be unable to write a good letter if they have only fleeting knowledge of you and your performance. Unless you have worked with them or your work had substantial impacts on your office/agency, the heads of agencies and corporations typically cannot write a valuable letter for you.

Another pointer: those who already have some sort of graduate education (including law school) themselves can typically write stronger letters than those who have not yet attended grad school. Why? Because they know what it takes to survive in a graduate program because they were once there. When they say you have what it takes to succeed, it has more value because it's an informed assessment.

Are there any letter sources I should avoid?

The rule of thumb to follow is to seek letters from those who can strengthen your application. I have seen a number of letters from fellow church-members, friends from high school, and family members who say very nice things about an applicant, but none of those individuals can be considered a nuetral judge of one's academic abilities (e.g., can your Aunt Susan really talk about your writing abilities?).

What about a letter from my local freeholder or other elected officials?

Those that are written by elected officials under whom you worked as an intern or on a project would be considered akin to work supervisor letters and can be quite useful. But, so-called constituent letters, that is those written saying that you live in their district and seem like a mighty fine person have little value to a program like ours. I actually saw a letter of recommendation from then President Bush (Bush 41) for an applicant to grad school (one of my classmates who was excitedly showing off the letter and the autographed photo that came with it). When I asked the fellow how he knew the President, he said that his father had worked on one of his campaigns many years ago but that he himself had never interacted with the famed letter writer. That became obvious upon a reading of the letter; it simply glossed over the "meat" and talked instead about what a fine young man the applicant was and how honored the President was to write the letter. Applicant committees aren't looking for eulogy material, they want to know whether the applicant would be a good choice for one of the few slots in their graduate program. So, constituent letters are probably the weakest type of letters.

One of my work supervisors agreed to write me a letter of recommendation, but she wants to know what to include in it?

[coming soon]

November 3, 2007