Letters of Recommendation are an immensely important part of your application. All universities that you apply to will ask for at least 2 letters of recommendation. Through these letters, admission committees gain objective evaluation of your work from a professional who is experienced in the field. You could get your LOR written from either your professors, employers or both. 

At the master’s level, universities really prefer getting recommendation letters from your professors because they want to see how you would perform in an academic setting. When asking for recommendation letters, choose professors with whom you have worked for a long time, preferably a year or more. Exclude professors you’ve only taken one class with. It’s best if it is someone with whom you’ve taken multiple classes or worked on a research or a project. It has to be someone who can vouch for your academic abilities. If you can get a recommendation from a professor who is renowned in the field, then that certainly helps too. 

If you’ve gained some work or internship experience before applying for a master’s, you can also request your employer or supervisor to write a recommendation letter for you. Again, it should be someone with whom you’ve worked for a considerable amount of time and can attest to your skills and attributes. 

Universities want to hear detailed explanations of your work from recommenders. To give universities the information they desire, it’s important that the recommendation is coming from someone who has known you long enough. Only then can they provide a detailed description of you. 

You may be wondering how to make sure you get good recommendations. Well, you can be powerful in shaping what kind of recommendations you get! Our suggestion would be that you approach a professor or supervisor by directly asking if they can write you a good letter of recommendation. If they’re hesitant, it may not be the best idea to choose them. Choose the ones who are more enthusiastic about recommending you. 

We certainly suggest meeting them in person to ask for a recommendation. But we also would advocate that you drop them a friendly email about it too. Be sure to attach your CV to that email. While professors and supervisors know you well, they don’t always have a record of all the projects you’ve worked on. Sending over your CV will help them write more specifically. 

When you fill out your university application form, there will be a section for Letters of Recommendation on it. This section will ask you to provide details of your recommenders like their name, designation, phone number and email address. Once you fill out these details, all your recommenders will get an email which has a link on which the recommendation can be uploaded. If your recommender is a professor, make sure you mention their university email ID on the application form and not their personal ID. If it is an employer or supervisor, be sure to mention their organization email address. This increases the credibility of your recommendations. 

Check out a few examples of strong letters of recommendation at www.unirely.com. To get more information about how to apply to universities abroad for your master’s degree, get in touch with our counselors today.