Letter of Recommendation (LOR) Format for Students
The Letter of Recommendation or LOR is a document that provides the admission committee with a detailed insight into the applicant's candidature. It showcases admission officers about the applicant's contributions, skills, and achievements from the point of view of the recommender. A LOR usually consists of 400-500 words and fits on one page. It is divided into 4-5 paragraphs: an introduction, 2-3 body paragraphs and a conclusion.
We have discussed the LOR format below.
Para 1: Introduction:
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This consists of a brief description of recommender's credentials (title, college/company name, including his relationship with the client) — how long and in what capacity he has known the client — and to highlight the client’s stand he can compare the client’s status as against any other students whom he has supervised or taught. He/she has to identify responsibilities including no. of people supervised. Close this paragraph with the client’s outstanding qualities that motivate the recommender to recommend the client.
Para 2:
Discuss one Quality -- (for example - academic prowess, research aptitude, ability in thinking out of the box , leader ship, organizational, teamwork skills, taking initiatives, work ethics and/or maturity. Choose any one of these or any other that relates to the client, for each paragraph) and provide a substantial and impressive example or instance when the client displayed that quality. This is very important.
Para 3:
Discuss any other Quality and provide an impressive example of when the client displayed that quality.
Para 4:
Discuss yet another Quality and provide an impressive example of when the client displayed that quality.
Para 5:
Conclusion: Summary of the client’s strengths and a ringing and enthusiastic endorsement of his/her candidacy.
Important: Each LOR draft (considering there are 2-3 LORs for one applicant) should be highlighting different qualities so that they do not look as written by one person and the examples should be specific to that recommender only.
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