User:Benjamin Mako Hill/Letters of recommendations

This page is written for students interested in letters of recommendation to master programs. If you are a Ph.D. student interested in applying for faculty positions or postdocs requiring a letter of recommendation, please contact me directly as early as possible.

"Will you write me a letter of recommendation?"

I am happy to write letters of recommendation for students in my classes only if I am confident I can write a strong letter that will help your application. This is to help you. If my letter is thin, lukewarm, or worse, it will not help and might even hurt your application. As a result, I typically only write letters if all of the following criteria are met:

You have taken and fully completed at least one class with me

If you are a "current" student in one of my classes, I will not say “yes” to a request for a letter until after the quarter is over and grades are finalized. This means that I cannot provide a letter for you, or even confirm that I can provide a letter at all, before the UW grade deadline in the quarter of your class with me. As described below, I will need two weeks to prepare a letter. If you have taken an independent study, done an honors thesis, or participated in a directed research group (DRG) with me and received full credit, that counts as a class, and I'm almost always excited about providing letters for students in this situation.

I should have some sense of your skills, work ethic, and personality that goes beyond just the grade you received in my class

The point of letters is to provide something more than what's visible in the transcript. If my letter can only say, "X took my class and did well. X's final grade was Y" (and so on), then the letter will provide very little additional benefit to your application. Ask yourself: Did you come to office hours? Did you volunteer to speak up in class frequently? Did you find other ways to leave an impression on me that might be something I could talk about in a letter? If the answer is "No," any letter I provide will be thin, and you will very likely be better served by a letter from someone else who can provide that kind of depth and texture that letter readers are looking for. This is particularly important if your course was a large lecture class where the TA likely did much of the grading. If this your only class with me, the answer will usually be no.

You have given me at least two weeks advance notice

I generally cannot provide a letter with less lead time than this. Certainly not a strong one. When you ask for a letter, please tell me the first deadline. Masters programs typically have deadlines not earlier than January 1st, so I try to do all of these letters during the winter "break" when I have more availability.

You did well in my classes

If the only way I know you is through a single class, my letter will be limited to describing your work in the class. I'll explain what grade you received, and I'll compare it to your classmates. As a result, a good rule of thumb is that you should only ask me for a letter for graduate school applications if you have earned a grade of 3.8 in one of my classes (ideally higher) or a 3.5 for an application for a job. Because I can sometimes write a stronger letter than your grade in my class might suggest, this is not a hard-and-fast rule, but it is a good heuristic.

You will agree to waive your right to examine your letter

My letter will be an honest accounting of my assessment of your ability to succeed in graduate or a job you are applying to. Knowing that my letter was shared in private helps the person receiving the letter be confident that I am being honest.

"What do you need from me?"

Full disclosure: It takes me 1-3 hours to produce a letter for a single program and 10-15 minutes to customize the letter for each additional program you apply to. I got where I am because many people wrote letters for me. I'm happy to do this to help you out too! Writing a strong letter is a joy. I love doing it. That said, there are several things you can do to make this process as fast and smooth as possible:

• The first deadline — this is the most important thing for me to know because it is the time I must write a letter.
• Provide me with a detailed list of the positions you are applying for. One helpful approach many students use is to create a spreadsheet using Google Sheets with a row for every program/job you are applying to. I need at least the following information:
  • The program name/address to whom I should address my letter
  • Information on how I will submit the letter (almost always online these days; sometimes a program will only request the letter themselves if you make it onto a shortlist)
  • The deadline for each specific program
  • A link to the website or program you are applying to so I can know what type of program you are applying to.
  • Notes about anything you would like me to emphasize in my letter (e.g., skills or background you know they are looking for).
  • Anything else I need to know (e.g., is there a page or word limit for letters?)
  • A final quick note: if you ensure I have editing access to the sheet, I will create a column and mark things as done as I submit them.
• Please ensure that you only request letters from me for programs or places you are actually going to apply. For example, make sure that you satisfy any prerequisite requirements. It's OK to start with a broad list, but please narrow things down before the first deadline or let me know that you are still unsure about applying to a particular program (e.g., by marking things clearly in your sheet).
• Typically, application websites will create submission URLs once you start the application process and enter your recommenders' information. Please do this for all programs you apply to before the first deadline. This way, I can submit all my letters at the same time I produce the first one. This is more efficient for me and useful for you, as well, since it means that all my letters will be finalized as soon as the first one is.
• Please provide me with as much contextual information about yourself as possible. A draft of a statement of purpose, your current resumé or CV, your academic transcript, published papers, lists of your hopes and dreams, and so on are all helpful for me!

"I need some information from you for the application."

Information you will typically need from me:

Given (First) Name

Benjamin Mako

Family (Last) Name

Hill

Title

Associate Professor

Employeer

University of Washington

Phone

(+1) 206-409-7191

Address

University of Washington / Dept. of Communication, Box 353740 / Seattle, WA, 98195

Credit for this page

Although I've mostly rewritten the text and changed this around a bit, I took inspiration for this page from Catherine Bolzendahl who was inpsired, in turn, by Nancy Kovens.