Letters of recommendation from a lab mentor, PI or senior lab researcher with direct knowledge of the applicant should address the applicant’s professional characteristics. Current or recent academic instructors and/or employers with direct knowledge of the qualities of the applicant that are relevant for graduate training are also accepted. Letters of recommendation should NOT come from family or friends. All letters of recommendation are due by the application deadline.
Letters of recommendation should address:
- How long and in what capacity does the recommender know the applicant?
- How many students the recommender has known at this level?
- What is the candidate’s intellectual potential; ability to plan and conduct research; creativity and originality; knowledge in the chosen field; ability to work independently and with a team; maturity; motivation for graduate study; writing ability; oral expression; integrity; and overall potential for graduate work in biomedical sciences?
- Applicant's potential for research and an evaluation of the applicant's expertise in research.
Once you have saved an electronic recommendation, an email request will automatically be sent to the recommender on your behalf. Please advise your recommender to look for this email in their inbox, as well as their spam or junk-mail folder, as emails do occasionally get filtered out.