For Recommenders: Suggestions for writing a letter

by Caty Pilachowski, AAS President

Thank you for agreeing to write a letter of support for one of your students who is applying for participation in an NSF-REU program in astronomy next summer. We receive many applications, and the letter of recommendation is typically the most important part of a student's application package. Assuming that you wish to give your student the best possible chance of success, we have put together some suggestions for writing letters of reference.

You can assume that we have the academic record of the student available to us, so there is no need to repeat that information. Please describe your relationship with the student , i.e. whether you have taught them in class, in private study, in the laboratory or through a research project. We would value information from you on how quickly they learn, how motivated they are, whether they can seek and take advice from peers and mentors, their written and verbal communication skills, their level of independence, how well they work in a group, and the extent to which you think they can grow professionally by involvement in an REU program. Another thing that you should know is that the applications are processed over a very short time period, and thus receiving the letter by the due date (February 1) is essential.

Thank you again for helping us with this important process.

For the SARA REU Program, we request that letters be sent as plain text in the body of an email message or as a PDF attachment (no MS Word attachments, please), or via surface mail if you prefer. All letters will be treated as confidential and will be destroyed once the interns for the coming year are selected.

Please send letters of recommendation to:

Dr. Matt A. Wood
SARA REU Program Director
Dept. Physics & Space Sciences
Florida Institute of Technology
Melbourne, FL 32901-6975
Phone: 321-674-7207
FAX: 321-674-7482
email: wood 'at' fit.edu (replace 'at' with @)