Letters of Recommendation

Advice and Instructions for Students Requesting Letters

Author

David Dalpiaz

Published

November 27, 2019

Hello!

Effective November 14, 2024, and until further notice, I must suspend writing of letters for student whose only interaction with me has been receiving a good grade in a course.1 I will continue to write for students have who collaborated on independent research or worked as course staff. Sorry for any inconvenience.

If you are reading this, you have requested a letter of recommendation.2 Tentatively, I will do so, but I would like to make you aware of a set of policies that I adhere to when navigating the letter writing process. Please read all of the following carefully. Letter writing usually happens during breaks or the busy parts of the semester, so you will need to communicate effectively and efficiently. Please keep email communications concise. Bullet points are better than paragraphs. When emailing:

First, you need to know a little bit about me. I am a Teaching Associate Professor. This is a non-tenure track position, where I spend the majority of my time focused on teaching, as opposed to research. You need to know this because it potentially (negatively) effects the strength of my letter. It also makes a letter from me less appropriate for PhD programs, perhaps even inappropriate.

While it will likely not have much of an impact on my letter, you should be aware that I recently moved from the Department of Statistics to the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, which was formerly known as the Department of Computer Science.

Next, the most important thing you need to know: I will only write about information that I obtained myself. That is, I will not take suggestions from the applicant about what to write. I may request some information from you, but it will mostly be used to help my memory. It is likely that the only information I know about you is the course you took with me, the grade you received, and your rank relative to your peers. I will often be asked to submit the information seen in the image below. Unless we discuss otherwise, I will select “No Basis for Judgment” for all categories.

To be as clear as possible, if our only relationship was student-instructor, this is not a strong letter. I am willing to write it, but I want to make you aware of its relative strength. My colleague Geoffrey Herman calls these coursework letters and has written a bit more about them.

Unless we have directly worked together beyond a student-instructor relationship, a letter from me will not be individualized to specific programs. Instead, I will use the same generic letter for all applications. If you have worked on an individual research project or served as course staff, you can expect a much more detailed letter that may be tailored to individual programs.

Students often have a misunderstanding that attendance in office hours can translate to a more positive letter. Unfortunately, given the volume of students I teach and thus interact with during office hours, that is not the case.

Finally, in order for me to agree to write a letter, three conditions must be satisfied.3

  1. You must have completed a course with me.4
  2. You must have received a grade of A or A+.5
  3. You must give at least two weeks notice. Earlier is better.

If you have read the above and would like to proceed, please read on.6

Email Zero: The Ask

First, send an email (or come speak to me in person) asking for a letter of recommendation, even if you happened to read this website first. Please be sure the first condition above is satisfied before asking for a letter.7 This email should be concise, but include enough information for me to understand how we know each other.8

Email One: The Information

After requesting the letter, you have been made aware of this information, and I have agreed, send an email with the following information:

  • State the following: “I agree to the listed terms and would like to request a letter of recommendation.”
  • State the following: “I agree that David Dalpiaz can release my grade information as a part of the letter writing process.”
  • Your name.
    • Your full legal name.
    • Your preferred name. That is, the name you would like me to use.
  • A list of classes we have shared. You must list:
    • Course number (i.e. STAT 400)
      • Full name of course (i.e. Statistics and Probability I)
      • Semester (i.e. Fall 2014)
      • Grade (i.e. A+)
  • A list of any other experiences we have shared.
  • The number (or rough estimate of) the number of school you intend applying to.9
  • The earliest deadline of the schools you plan to apply to.
  • (Optional) A photo of yourself.10

Please simply type this information in the body of the email. Do not use attachments.

Interlude: Start Your Applications

If I agree to write for you after your initial email, it’s time to add me as a reference to all of your applications. While adding my information to applications, please note:

  • When listing me as a reference, I expect you to fill in as much information as possible. See my Illinois Faculty page for most of that information. Specifically:
    • Prefix: Dr.
    • Title: Teaching Associate Professor
    • University: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign11
    • Affiliation: Siebel School of Computing and Data Science
    • Address: 201 North Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801
    • Phone: (217) 333-3426
    • Relationship: Instructor (Unless we worked together outside of a course.)
  • You must waive your right to view the letter. This doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to write anything bad, I’m simply following the lead of other faculty. This seems to be the norm.
  • Be aware that you do not need to complete your application to list me as a reference. With that in mind, please add me ASAP so I can complete them whenever I have time.
  • Please attempt to send as many notification emails in one group. Receiving these emails on the same day will help me track them. If for some reason you need to spread out applications, you need to discuss that with me first.

Email Two: The First Reminder

After you have added me to all of your applications, send me an email letting me know you have done so. I will not submit any letters until you send this email.

In that email, re-list everything from Email One, as well as:

  • A finalized list of schools as a bulleted list. You should verify this information is correct. Whatever you write here, I might write into your letter. I will not proofread your work. Use exact, proper names. For example do not use “MS”, use “Master of Science,” or whatever the school calls the degree. Use full school names, for example do not use “UMich,” use “University of Michigan.” If you are applying to multiple programs at the same school, you should give each a separate bullet. You should list:
    • Name of School (i.e. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
      • Name of Program (i.e. Statistics)
      • Name of Degree (i.e. Master of Science)
      • Deadline

Please simply type this information in the body of the email. Do not use attachments.

Email Three: A Second Reminder

You may not hear from me after Email Two. I will likely file it away in a folder of many other letter of recommendation requests I have received so that I can batch process them on some weekend where I have time to do so. If I have not submitted a letter within a week of the deadline, it is your responsibility to send me a reminder email. Do not hesitate to send reminders. I often receive hundreds of notification emails about letters I need to submit. The probability of me missing one or forgetting something is high.

Email Four: Follow-Up

If and when I submit letters for all applications, please let me know that we have officially completed the process so that I can remove your name from my list.

Email Five: Results

At the end of this process, please share the results with me! I write so many letters, but rarely am I told about the result. Also note that, in the past some students have been so kind as to attempt to thank me with a small gift. Please note that ethics rules prohibit me from accepting any such gifts, so I will need to decline any such offer. However, knowing that a student of mine was accepted to a graduate program is all the thanks I need. So please let me know the result of your application process!

Footnotes

  1. Any prior agreements will be fulfilled.↩︎

  2. Or for some weird reason you are reading my website.↩︎

  3. Some exceptions are possible if discussed well in advance of application time.↩︎

  4. No exceptions can be made for this item unless we have shared other experiences.↩︎

  5. Note that obtaining a grade of A does not guarantee a high rank in the class.↩︎

  6. Apologies if these policies seem authoritarian and harsh. Given my difficulty denying letter requests, I often end up writing many letters. These policies were created to become efficient enough to process as many letters as possible.↩︎

  7. If you ask before this condition is satisfied, I will not give you an answer until the condition is satisfied and it probably isn’t a great idea to wait that long to solidify one of your letter writers.↩︎

  8. At a minimum, what classes did you take and when did you take them.↩︎

  9. I have yet to set a limit on number of applications I will process, but 10 or more would be on the edge of what I consider reasonable.↩︎

  10. Sometimes it is helpful to put a face with a name. I’ve had a lot of students!↩︎

  11. There is no “at” or hyphen in the name of the University.↩︎