Letters of Recommendation:

Introduction Selecting the right people How to go about doing it Writing the recommendation yourself

What the site contains:

What is a Statement of Purpose? What do colleges look for in an SoP? How do I start writing mine? How do I polish my SoP? Can I see some sample SoPs? What about recommendation letters? Can you help me with Scholarship SoPs? New What other resources can I tap?

Writing Tips:

Starting the essay Writing the Essay Editing and Rewriting Polishing the essay Writing Guides New

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

Selecting the right people to recommend you :

Do they know you well enough
You don't want to go for someone who doesn't remember your name. Which is why it's always prudent to stick with immediate superiors or professors (in an academic setting). More importantly, will the university believe that they know you well enough. If the CEO of the firm where you interned is recommending you, make sure it's clear that your interaction with the recommender is apparent in the write-up. The University could very well question the credibility of a recommendation if it appears to have been manipulated.

How much credibility are they likely to hold with the university.
In academia, professors are likely to carry more weight compared to lab-assistants. In any case, make sure that the professional competence of the person recommending you is apparent.

Are they likely to give you a positive recommendation
And you want to be doubly sure of this. You may want to stay away from the unreliable ones. If necessary, approach the person and ask them upfront. Since they're likely to have written recommendations for applicants before, it's not too much to expect them to understand your anxiety. However, use your discretion in case you aren't too sure of how he/she will react.

Get some variety into your recommendations
For multiple recommendations, look out for whether the recommendations are likely to rehash the same aspects of your personality. As far as possible, get recommendations from people who've interacted with you in different situations. For example, an engineering student would be well advised to get recommendations from a professor, a lab instructor and someone like a project guide. The professor could attest to the student's keen sense of class participation. The instructor could focus on his/her skills in the laboratory and the project-guide on his/her flair for research and getting to the root of problems.

Co-ordinate your recommendations with the rest of your application
If the somewhere in rest of your application you've focussed on something like a particular project, it would be particularly useful to try and build on that by providing a recommendation from the person who guided you through that project. Likewise, if you've talked about your biggest achievement at work, how about getting your boss at the time to recommend you.
 

Selecting the right people

How to go about doing it

Writing the recommendation yourself