Recommendations

This webpage contains advice for people asking for a letter of recommendation from me or someone like me. It was largely plagiarized from a similar page by Ravi Vakil. (Last modified Saturday, 24-Jun-2023 04:20:28 CDT.)

Special warning (may not apply to others like me): given that I have limited time to write these letters, I would prefer to prioritize supporting the careers of deserving younger mathematicians. As a consequence, I am no longer accepting requests for recommendation letters for promotions beyond the tenured Associate Professor level (or equivalent). In the typical case where such a request is issued by an evaluation committee rather than a candidate, it will be met with a polite one-paragraph reply summarizing my opinion.

You likely have a lot of things on your mind right now, and this is the last thing you want to worry about, but this deals with a central part of your application.

Recommendation letters play an important role for mathematicians at all career stages. For this reason, I am asked to write many letters each year at numerous levels (undergraduates applying for REUs, graduate school, summer employment, etc.; graduate students applying for conference funding, summer programs, postdocs, other jobs, etc.; postdocs applying for tenure-track jobs; tenure cases; fellowships; special research programs). This ends up being a huge time sink, which makes the following request all the more important: Please remember that it is in your interest to make your busy letter writer's job as easy as possible.

Please give me as much notice as possible so I can write a letter which is detailed enough to be useful detail. A month is reasonable. Two weeks may be pushing it if there isn't much flexibility in my schedule at that time. If you give me very little notice, at best I will have to write a rushed and perfunctory letter; at worst I won't have time to write at all (or possibly even to answer your request).

You want to help your recommender write as detailed a letter as possible. Here are things that would help me. Only some may apply to you (especially if I have written for you before). I will likely only start writing your letter once I have all the information I would like (as there is always someone else's letter I can write first). All materials should be provided electronically (no paper please!); for things posted online, a URL will suffice.

• Let me know that you read this page! Otherwise I'll direct you back here before proceeding.
• If you are applying using an online system (e.g., Mathjobs), please give my email address as kedlaya@ucsd.edu. Otherwise, I may not be able to log in and upload your letter!
• Your preferred full name and nominative pronoun. If the latter is not "he", "she", or "they", I may need some clarification. (Note: in my writing, "they" is grammatically plural even when it refers to a single individual, just like "you"; that is, "they are" rather than "they is".)
• A current CV/résumé. Any format will do.
• For UC San Diego undergrads: a completed FERPA waiver. This is legally necessary for me to comment on your academic performance in my letter.
• For non-UC San Diego undergrads: a transcript or unofficial replica thereof. If your institution has its own FERPA waiver form, please include this also. (Special case: I don't need transcripts for Budapest Semesters in Mathematics, but I do need written permission to waive FERPA.)
• Everything you will submit with your application (e.g. personal essay, research summary, research proposal); very good drafts will do in a pinch. Corollary: finish your part of the application early.
• If you are applying to a special program of some sort (like an REU): information about the program you are applying to (e.g. the official program announcement; a web link will suffice), and what they are looking for.
• if you are a mathematician: pointers to papers (e.g., by arXiv identifier). For graduate students, I also want work in progress (i.e., some chapters of your thesis; these will be kept confidential).
• Who else is writing you a letter (so I can say things that might not otherwise be covered)?
• Where are you applying (e.g. list of schools)? Do any of them require me to differentiate the letter in some way?
• When do you need the letter by? (I try to keep my calendar organized, but it is the responsibility of the applicant to provide sufficient reminders.)
• How do I get the letter to where it needs to go? Ignore if I will receive an upload link (e.g., from Mathjobs).
• Is there anything in particular you would like me to address? (Are there particular theorems/papers you hope I'll write about? Are there theorems/papers that others will say more about?) Are there particular qualities you would prefer that I discuss?
• Any other information that might have a chance of helping me. Feel free to phrase this in the form of text I might use in my letter; this might sound dodgy but is actually really helpful (and anyway I will rewrite in my own words).
• for UC San Diego undergrads: if your interaction with me is based on a single course, I will start with a generic "base letter" for that course (example). In order for me to be able to write something more individualized, it helps if you engage me at some additional level (e.g., by coming to office hours regularly), and if you let me know of your intention of asking for a letter while our interactions are still fresh in my memory (i.e., during or right after my course). Also, I cannot describe your performance in one of my courses until after final grades are submitted, except in rare cases where an extrapolation has been requested (e.g., renewing a student visa).

Thank you for helping make this process run smoothly, and good luck with your applications!