Sample Letter of Recommendations for MS

Letters of Recommendation (LOR) are considered one of the most important documents of an applicant for applying abroad since they are his/her third-party endorsement. The LORs portray the student’s personality, competence, aptitude, passion, and so on from others’ perspective, and supplement the SOP/Essay. Each LOR has three paragraphs with one quality each and the attribute or quality mentioned is supported by a real-time instance.

Important: LORs need to be authentic. Plagiarism will lead to rejects

Who is the right recommender?

“Choose individuals who know you well, and who will take the time to write thorough, detailed letters with specific anecdotes and examples … We are impressed by what the letter says and how it reads, not by the title of the person who writes it”. (Stanford Graduate School of Business)

• Students should choose individuals who have had significant direct involvement with them within the last few years
• Who can talk well about them
• Who can address more than one key criterion (intellectual ability, skill sets, leadership potential, maturity, ethics, research aptitude, analytical ability, team-building prowess, and so on)
• Who can address specific issues by appropriate examples

The accepted LOR format is: 

• Para1: Introduction: This consists of a brief description of the recommender’s credentials (name, title, college/company name, including his/her relationship with the student) — how long and in what capacity he/she has known the student — he/she can highlight the student’s stand as against any other student whom he/she has supervised or taught. Close this paragraph with the student’s outstanding qualities that motivate the recommender to recommend the student
• Para2: Discuss one Quality – For example, academic prowess, research aptitude, ability in thinking out of the box, leadership, organizational, teamwork skills, taking initiatives, work ethics and/or maturity. Choose any one that applies to the student for each paragraph and provide a substantial and impressive example or instance when the student displayed that quality
• Para 3: Discuss any other quality and provide an impressive example of when the student displayed that quality
• Para4: Discuss yet another quality and provide an impressive example of when the student displayed that quality; here the recommender can also mention an initial weakness of the student and how he/she has overcome it successfully through constructive feedback
• Para5: Conclusion: Summary of the student’s strengths and a ringing and enthusiastic endorsement of his/her candidacy

Important

Each LOR draft should be highlighting different qualities so that they do not look as written by one person and the examples should be specific to that recommender only. LORs are one page or 500 words long

A sample LOR 

Letter of Recommendation

In the project, the synthesized and doped Silver-Graphene Oxide and Copper-Graphene Oxide catalyst were used to increase the speed of the reaction during the conversion of 4-Nitrophenol to 4-Aminophenol and in the 1^st cycle, the conversion took place in 2 minutes and 7 minutes respectively, whereas the reaction windows recorded so far were 9 minutes and 12 minutes respectively. This proves her ability to achieve effective results, and of course, her assiduous attitude towards research.

Student X has my highest recommendation for admission to your master’s program as she has shown her passion and enthusiasm in research and the field of Materials Engineering. Her curiosity, combined with her willingness to learn, leads me to believe that she is fit for undergoing a master’s degree which would aid her growth in the educational life.

Dr. Y

Associate Professor and Head of the Department,

Subject

XXX University

Contact No. +1234

Email ID: Y@care.ac.in 

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