In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:
Question(s) about writing a letter of recommendation for a student applying to philosophy graduate programs:
1. How long is your letter? 2 pages single-spaced?
2. How detailed should it be? For instance, should one spend a paragraph explaining the student's thesis?
3. What do you typically highlight?
These are all excellent questions. I've written a fair number of recommendation letters and had fairly decent success at having students accepted into good programs. I'd say my typical letter is about 2 pages, though in one case I wrote a 5 page letter about a student that I felt really strongly about. In terms of how detailed, I think that depends, but I typically try to highlight what is interesting and original about their work as well as relevant personal qualities (such as diligence, ability to handle setbacks, feedback, engage others philosophically in conversation, etc.) that seem relevant to me to likely success in a grad program.
At my university, philosophy majors don't typically write theses, but if the student wrote some excellent papers (including an independent study paper), then of course I'll discuss one or two of those. I also try to make the overall strength of my recommendation clear (e.g. "they have my highest recommendation"), and also say something about how they compare to other students (e.g. "this is the best student that I've had in 20 years of teaching", "they are one of the 10 best students that I've had", "they are in the top 10% of students that I've had", etc.)--as I've heard many times that grad admissions committees look for this sort of thing.
Anyway, these are just some things I do. It would be great to hear from other letter writers, as well as from grad school admissions committee members on the kinds of things they look for in a good letter!
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