To: Graduate AdmissionsCommittee

It is my pleasure to write on behalf of Jane Student, who is applying to the PhDprogram in Research Psychology at MajorUniversity. I have interacted with Jane in several contexts: as student, as teaching assistant, andas thesis mentee.

I firstmet Jane in 2008, when she enrolled in my introductory Psychology class. Jane immediately stood out from the crowd, even as a first semester freshman. Just a fewmonths out of high school, Jane demonstrated characteristics commonly held by the best collegestudents. She was attentive in class,prepared, submitted well-written and thoughtful assignments, and participatedin meaningful ways, such as by debating other students. Throughout, Janemodeled criticalthinking skills. Needless to say, Jane earned one of five A’sawarded in that class of 75 students. Since her first semester in college Janehas enrolled in six of my classes. She demonstrated similar competencies, and her skills grew witheach semester. Most striking is her ability to tackle challenging material withenthusiasm and endurance. I teach a required course in Statisticsthat, as rumor has it, most students dread. Students’ fears of statistics islegendary across institutions, but Jane wasn’t fazed. As usual she was preparedfor class, completed all assignments, and attended help sessions conducted bymy teaching assistant. My teaching assistant reported that Jane seemed to learn conceptsquickly, learning how to solve problems well before the other students. Whenplaced in groupwork sessions, Jane easily adopted a leadership role, helping her peerslearn how to solve problems on their own. It was these competenciesthat led me to offer Jane a position as teaching assistant for my statisticsclass.

As teaching assistant, Jane strengthened many of the skills I havearticulated. In this position Jane held review sessions and offeredout-of-class assistance to students. She also lectured in class several timesduring the semester. Her first lecture was a bit shaky. She clearly knew theconcepts but had difficulty keeping pace with PowerPoint slides. When sheabandoned the slides and worked off the blackboard, she improved. She was ableto answer students questions and the two that she couldn’t answer she admittedto and said she’d get back to them. As a first lecture, she was very good. Mostimportant to a career in academics, is that she improved in subsequentlectures. Leadership,humility, the ability to see areas in need of improvement, and the willingnessto do the work needed to improve – these are all characteristics we value inacademia. Most important to a career in academics is researchcompetence. As I have explained, Jane has an excellent grasp of statistics and otherskills critical to a successful career in research, such as tenacity andexcellent problem solving and critical thinking skills. As mentor of hersenior thesis, I witnessed Jane in her first independent research efforts. Similarto other students, Jane struggled with finding anappropriate topic. Unlike other students, sheconducted mini literature reviews on potential topics and discussed her ideaswith a sophistication that is unusual for undergraduates. Aftermethodical study, she chose a topic that fits her academic goals. Jane’sproject examined [X]. Her project earned a department award, university award,and was presented as a paper at a regional psychology association.

In closing, I believe that Jane student has thecapacity to excel at X and in a career as a researchpsychologist. She is one of a small handful of student that I have encounteredI my 16 years teaching undergraduates that has this ability. Please do not hesitate to contact me with further questions.