How to write

good letters of
recommendation
Because of our highly competitive applicant
pool, letters of recommendation hold
substantial weight in our admissions
decisions. A well-written letter for an
outstanding applicant can show impressive
characteristics beyond their own
self-advocacy.

A guide to writing evaluations for MIT

Both guidance counselor and teacher evaluations are most helpful
when they are specific and storied. They should provide us with the
information and impressions we cannot glean from the rest of the
application. Try to give a complete sketch of the student and the
context of their accomplishments. Support your conclusions with facts
and anecdotes whenever possible.
Try to address the following questions in your evaluation:
 What is the context of your relationship with the applicant? If
you do not know the applicant well and are only able to write a brief
summary, please acknowledge this.
 Has the student demonstrated a willingness to take intellectual
risks and go beyond the normal classroom experience?
 Does the applicant have any unusual competence, talent, or
leadership abilities?
 What motivates this person? What excites them?
 How does the applicant interact with teachers? With peers?
Describe their personality and social skills.
 What will you remember most about this person?
 If you have knowledge of MIT, what leads you to believe MIT is
a good match for this person? How might they fit into the MIT
community and grow from the MIT experience?
 Has the applicant ever experienced disappointment or failure? If
so, how did they react?
 Are there any unusual family or community circumstances of
which we should be aware?
Please pay special attention to the opening and closing of your
evaluation. Remember, we are reading over 20,000 applications, and
we appreciate strong statements that we’ll remember as we evaluate
each candidate. With that said, please write in a way that makes you
feel comfortable and do not shy away from giving us your honest
impressions. We are only looking for glowing superlatives if they are
backed up with examples and give us context; what is behind a
student’s achievements. Above all else, make sure to go beyond a
student’s grades and academic performance. We can get this
information from other parts of the application.
Letters of recommendation are confidential in the MIT admissions
process.

Examples letters of recommendation and critiques

Teacher recommendation for David:
It is a great pleasure for me to recommend David for admission
to MIT. He is one of the most extraordinary students I have
encountered in 20 years of teaching. I taught David A.P.
Calculus last year as a tenth grader, and he was one of the very
top students in an extremely able group of mostly seniors. He
has a high aptitude for math and was very much involved in his
work, applying himself with persistence and dedication and often
going beyond the regular class assignments.
David’s abiding interest, however, is computer science. He has
developed a series of “strands” for use in providing computerized
drill and review in the basic skills and techniques of algebra and
arithmetic and has recently adapted these to other subjects.
David’s work in this area has been so original and significant that
he has published a paper on it and delivered several lectures to
professionals in other parts of the country. This is a phenomenal
 accomplishment for anyone, especially a young man in rural
Arkansas. It is also worth noting that both last year and this year
David taught computer programming to a tenth-grade class of
mine for two weeks. He took over completely, preparing lectures,
assignments, and tests with great care and thought. His lectures
were clear and well organized, and it was obvious that he had
expended a great deal of effort to make the course the success
that it was.
David’s personal qualities are as impressive as his intellectual
accomplishments. An extremely kind, sensitive and sensible boy,
he has had a difficult family situation for a few years now. He
provides emotional support to his mother through her battle with
cancer without allowing the situation to undermine his own
stability and accomplishments. He has exhausted all that we
have to offer him in this small community, and the maturity that
he has demonstrated leads me to believe him capable of
entering college a year early, as he now plans to do. I sincerely
hope that you will be able to offer him a place in MIT’s freshman
class.

Critique: Excellent! This recommendation is filled with comments from

someone who clearly knows this student well. We get a clear sense
for not only David’s intellectual capacities, but also emotional maturity.
His genuine love for computer programming comes through in this
teacher’s description. We also realize that he is pushing academic
boundaries in his community and making opportunities for himself – a
trait that is especially important for a candidate seeking college
admissions a year early.

Teacher recommendation for Jen:

Jen was a student in one of my predominately senior physics
classes. She took physics her junior year in high school and was
a good student. Through hard work, she was able to develop a
good understanding of the subject material.
Jen also had personal qualities that are commendable. In the two
years that I have known her I have never known her to be
dishonest or untrustworthy. Once on an exam paper I had made
a grading error in her favor. She brought this to my attention
even though it resulted in a lower test grade.
In conclusion, I feel that Jen has both the academic and personal
qualities to be a credit to the college of her choice, and I give her
my recommendation without reservation.

Critique: We receive thousands of recommendations like this each

year. It is all positive, but it doesn’t give any real depth to the
candidate. In this instance, the reader is left feeling the writer is
reaching for something to say. Honesty and trustworthiness are
certainly admirable traits, but they are not uncommon among the
nation’s top college applicants. We are looking for a compelling
reason to admit someone, so information on the class material does
not help the candidate. Although Jen may be a hard worker, most of
our applicants are. Although the comments are positive, it is difficult to
grasp onto anything tangible to make this candidate’s case stronger.
Was this faint praise intentional? How does Jen fare in comparison
with other (more outstanding?) candidates at the school?

Counselor recommendation for Mary:

Mary has contributed to the school community in a variety of
ways, most notably through her participation on the newspaper
and yearbook staffs. Frankly, I am impressed with her
aggressiveness, creativity, determination and ability to schedule
extracurricular activities around a full academic workload. I have
never heard Mary complain about her workload or refuse any
assignment that she has been given. It is not adequate to say
that she accepts responsibility readily. She seeks responsibility.
Oh, for more such students!
As business manager for the paper and co-editor of the yearbook
the past two years, Mary has done an outstanding job. She
personally brought the town’s business community from the view
that the school newspaper was a charitable organization to the
realization that the paper is a direct pipeline through which
advertisers can reach students. She also took the initiative to set
up the advertising rate schedule for the paper that produced
enough revenue to expand coverage from a four-page paper, so
that it is an eight-page and often twelve-page paper. Her work as
photographer for both publications has been equally outstanding.
Her motivation is not forced upon her, nor does she wear it like a
badge. She has tremendous self-discipline. Mary is also a
dedicated, versatile and talented student who will be an asset to
your undergraduate community. She has my respect and my
highest recommendation.

Critique: Good. Lots of specifics here give us a very clear impression

and help us to know why that impression is held. We have evidence of
her newspaper directives and overall character.

Counselor recommendation for Jane:

 Jane is an outstanding young woman whose academic record
may not fully reflect her ability. Her parents were divorced during
her junior year, and, for several years before that, her home
situation had been in turmoil with a great deal of fighting between
her parents. Her father has an alcohol problem, and Jane
certainly endured a great deal of emotional distress. The fact that
she has been able to do as well as she has done given the
circumstances says a lot about her. Now that the home situation
has stabilized, her performance has improved. I believe her
senior year grades are a much better reflection of her ability.

Critique: You may wonder whether or not the above information is

appropriate in a letter of evaluation. It is! We appreciate anything that
gives us insight and perspective into a student’s performance and the
environment. Comments about problems that a student has
experienced will help us understand the context in which they have
accomplished whatever they have achieved. The extent to which they
have dealt with these problems is useful to know as well.

Counselor recommendation for Mike:

I do not really know Mike very well. He has come to me for
routine matters but generally has not had any problems that he
has discussed with me. In this large school, I do not always have
the time to personally get to know each of my advisees. From the
comments I get from Mike’s teachers, I have the impression that
he is one of the strongest students this school has seen.

Critique: We do not learn very much from this report, but we

understand why. The counselor is very honest, and we are not left
guessing as to the reason there is not more information and will turn
our attention to other parts of the application.

Teacher recommendation for Brian:

Brian was in the top five in my class consistently. He is certainly
motivated to study. His character and personality are admirable.
Brian is an excellent student, hard worker and has above
average reasoning ability.

Critique: This is an example of an evaluation in which we really don’t

know what the writer is trying to tell us. The comments provided
certainly do not give much substantive information. We are left
wondering whether there is just not much to say about this student or
whether the teacher just didn’t bother to put much effort into the
recommendation. This is a situation where we will probably form our
impressions based on the pattern of all the recommendations. If all
are equally uninformative, we will assume there wasn’t much to say,
but if the others are better, we will assume this teacher did not give
much effort to the recommendation.