[Prevscilist] Best practices for recommendation letter requests

[Leslie D Leve]

Dear PrevSci Student Colleagues,

It may be hard to believe, but Scholarship Season will soon be upon us. Those of you continuing in the PrevSci program next academic year should apply for scholarships! The time for writing recommendation letters for scholarships coincides with admissions deadlines. Some of you are applying for admissions to other graduate programs, and may be requesting letters of recommendation. In addition, PrevSci faculty will be reviewing admissions files for applicants to the PrevSci and CPSY programs in December and January. Given the intensive nature of faculty workloads in December and January, it is important to provide a lot of lead time to those from whom you will request recommendation letters.  Please follow the best practices below when you request letters of recommendation for scholarships and admissions (or for anything else):

COE scholarship letters are due Feb 1st (and University letters typically due March 1st). See https://education.uoregon.edu/program/prevention-science-phd/student-funding for more info.

1. When you ask a faculty member for a letter of recommendation, ask at least a month in advance and include in the email:
                A. Names, addresses, organizations, and deadlines for each scholarship and any supplemental forms that have to be filled out by the reference and sent with the scholarship materials. List any directions such as "must be sealed and signed across the seal" or "Please email directly to moneybags at org.edu<mailto:moneybags at org.edu>". Be sure to provide a hard copy if your signature is required on one of the forms. Put your name on everything including file names for your CV (imagine how many emails we get with the attachment named "CV").
                B. A list of bullet points the faculty member could highlight in writing about you that make you a great candidate for the scholarship- include how long you have known the faculty member and what classes you took from them (we forget what year you entered the program after a few years!). This is very helpful. We like humility but we do not want you to practice humility when it is our goal to brag about you (note that excellent hair and superior affinity for local cuisine are not actually things that improve the likelihood of getting a scholarship, though they can be useful qualities).
                C. A statement of your career goals (oh, and it is really good to actually have career goals, btw)
                D. An updated VC without any typos in it (get it?).
2. Send polite gentle reminder emails to the letter writers (reminders occurring before the deadline are more effective than those occurring after the deadline).
3. Do not send multiple emails with different pieces of information in each email. If you forget something, re-send with all of the attachments so we have everything in a single email.
4. If you decide NOT to apply for a scholarship, IMMEDIATELY let your letter-writers know.
5. If you receive a scholarship, admission to a program, or new position, please let us know!

Thank you in advance for following these best practices.
Leslie & Beth

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