User:Benjamin Mako Hill/Letters of recommendations

This page is written for undergraduate students in my classes. If you a graduate student who is interested in a letter of recommendation, please reach out to me directly.

"Will you write me a letter of recommendation?"

I am happy to write letters of recommendation for undergraduate students but only if I am confident that I can write a strong letter that will help your application. As a result, I typically only write letters if all of the following criteria are met:

You have given me at least two weeks advanced notice

In general, I cannot provide a letter with less lead time than this. When you ask for a letter, please tell me what the first deadline is.

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

If you are current 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. If you have taken an independent study, done an honors thesis, or participated in directed research group with me and received full credit, that counts as a class.

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

If the course you took was a large lecture class where the TA likely did much of the grading, this is particularly important. 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 reflect on in a letter? If the answer is "No", you will very likely be better served by a letter from someone else.

You did well in my classes

If the only way that I know is through a single class, the reality is that most of my letter is likely going to describe your performance in the class. 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 at least a grade of 3.7 in one of my classes or a 3.3 for an application for a job. Sometimes, I can write a stronger letter than your grade in my class might suggest.

You will agree to waive your write to examine your letter

My letter will be an honest accounting of my asessment of your ability to succeed in graduate or in a job and knowledge that communiation will be private helps the person I am submitting the letter to be confident in my honesty.

"Awesome! What do you need from me?"

It takes me 1-3 hours to produce a letter for a single program and about 10-15 minutes to customize the letter for each additional program you apply to. There are a number of things you can do to make this process faster and smoother:

• Provide me a detailed list of the positions you are applying for. One helpful approach many students do is to create a spreadsheet using Google Sheets that keeps track of everything. 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)
  • The Deadline
  • A link to website the program you are applying to so I can know what
  • Notes about anything you would like me to emphasize in my letter.
  • Anything else I need to know (e.g., is there a page limit or word limit for letters?)
  • If you ensure that 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 that satisfy any prequisites. 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.
• Typically, application websites will create submission URLs once you start your application and enter your recommenders information. Please do this for all programs you are appplying 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 it's useful for you too since it means that all my letters will be in.
• Please provide me with as much contextual information as you can. A draft of a statement of purpose, your current resumé or CV, your transcript, papers you ahve published, and so on, are all really 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

Assistant 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

I took inspiration for this policy from Catherine Bolzendahl who was inpsired, in turn, by Nancy Kovens.