Sample'letter'of'recommendation'
[University letterhead]
[sender’s name]
[sender’s departmental address—if not printed on letterhead]
[sender’s departmental phone number, if available]
[sender’s departmental fax number—if not printed on letterhead]
[sender’s institutional email address]
[today’s date]
[recipient’s name]
[recipient’s institutional address]
Dear [recipient’s name]: or To Whom it May Concern:
It is my pleasure to recommend Jane Doe for admission to [name of program] at [name of university]. I am
a fifth-year Ph.D. student at the University of California, Berkeley. I came to know Jane when I was her
Graduate Student Instructor for Philosophy 111: Ethical Relativism, taught by Professor John Smith. The
course comprised [short description of course]. Jane distinguished herself by submitting an exceptionally
well researched and interesting project on ethical practices in ancient Greece. I would rank her in the top
2% of students that I have taught in the past five years in respect of her writing ability and research skills.
Overall, Jane is highly intelligent and has good analytical skills. Her project on ethical practices in ancient
Greece demonstrated her ability to come a detailed understanding of the ethical practices of another, very
different, culture, and to analyze the consequences of those practices for contemporary ethical theories. She
gave a particularly interesting discussion of the difficult practice of infanticide, and showed both sensitivity
and detachment when discussing its ethical consequences. Her overall intelligence is also reflected in her
grades for the course, which were by far the best in the class.
Jane has excellent communication skills. Her written work is both clear and concise, as well as interesting
to read. She demonstrated her oral articulateness in the discussion sections that were an integral part of the
course. Each discussion section focused on a particular ethical dilemma. Students were required analyze
morally problematic situations, and to develop and argue for their own ethical views with regard to the
issue in question. Jane was highly proficient in applying the course material in analyzing the problem
situations. She always explained her views very concisely and gave supporting arguments that were both
clear and persuasive. Jane also demonstrated good teamwork skills in group assignments.
At a personal level, Jane is a well disciplined, industrious student with a pleasant personality. She went
well beyond the course requirements in the quantity and quality of her project, putting in a lot of extra
research and attending office hours every week. Throughout the course, Jane demonstrated great
perseverance and initiative. Not only was she interested in and motivated to learn the material, but she also
put great work into assimilating it to her own experience and developing her own ideas about each ethical
topic that we discussed.
Jane is unquestionably an exceptional candidate for graduate study in Ethics. Jane’s work in Philosophy
111 suggests that she would greatly benefit from the opportunities for intellectual development provided by
a sustained period of graduate study. She has proven herself to have the perseverance, initiative, and