Editing User:Benjamin Mako Hill/Letters of recommendations (section)

== "Should I ask you for a recommendation?" ==

I have personally served on graduate admissions committees over many years and have read hundreds, likely thousands, of letters of recommendation. I know firsthand how these applications are evaluated. '''My advice is to ask for letters from people who know you well and can provide a letter that gives readers a strong sense of your personality, work ethic, and integrity through anecdotes and concrete details.''' Will I be able to provide such a letter? If the answer is ''no'' you are very likely better off asking somebody else. 

I'm sure you can appreciate that a letter of recommendation can be "weak" because it is negative (i.e., it does not recommend you for the position you seek). Because I believe it is unethical to do so, I will not provide a letter if I cannot recommend you. You might not appreciate the degree to which a letter can also be weak because it is "thin." Undergrads in my large (70+ students) classes often ask me to provide letters that, while not negative or harmful, will obviously be "thin" because I simply don't know them or their work very well. In most situations, these students would be better off with a letter from someone else.

Most undergrads in my classes who ask me for letters are applying to master's programs in topics related to digital media. They often tell me that having a letter from a professor working in my area will help them more than one from someone else who knows them better. If every letter were interchangeable, that might be true. But letters are not interchangeable and a strong letter full of evidence and personal detail is ''much more valuable'' than a letter from a "better" person that is thin on detail. Letters from a TA, a supervisor at work, or an instructor in a less obviously related class are more valuable if they can provide more detail. '''What your letter says is much more important who writes it.'''