I enjoy helping students and colleagues get recognized for their work through scholarships, fellowships, and graduate programs. I also spend a lot of time on scholarship, fellowship, and graduate acceptance committees, thus with these experiences, I know that I need at least a month to write a great letter for someone.
In addition, the only way I can truly write a strong letter of recommendation is if a student or colleague falls into one of these categories:
- If you would like to apply to a Ph.D. program, I am willing to write a letter for you if you conducted research with me (or with a graduate or post doctoral researcher in my lab) and successfully completed the project.
- If you would like to apply to a M.S. program, I am willing to write a letter for you if:
- You took a course with me and received at least an A-; or
- You conducted research with me (or with a graduate or post doctoral researcher in my lab) and successfully completed the project.
- If you would like to apply for a scholarship/fellowship/etc., I am willing to write a letter for you if:
- You took a course with me and received at least an A-; or
- Volunteered to work with me during a summer camp and were incredibly reliable and a great team player; or
- You are currently conducting research with me (or a graduate or post doctoral researcher in my lab) and are making good progress towards completing the project.
If you fall into one of these criteria, I need the following information in one email a month before the first submission date:
- in the email body,
- write in the email the following [note if you are unwilling to write this, then I am unable to provide you a letter]
- “I agree for Professor Siek to disclose my grade, rank in the class/group and any class information pertinent to making a good argument for my acceptance to the specific program.” (Why? Because FERPA does not let me put your grade in the course or a comparison of your abilities in a group of researchers without your explicit permission.)
- “I waive my rights to review the letter of recommendation.”
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answer the following questions:
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What was the most salient thing you learned in our class/research experience?
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How did our class/research experience prepare you for the experience you are applying to now?
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- write in the email the following [note if you are unwilling to write this, then I am unable to provide you a letter]
- attach the following documents
- a spreadsheet with all the letter of recommendation information (email address I should expect a request from, names to write the letter to, due dates, scholarship/grad program info including website)
- current resume/CV
- any documents you wrote in preparation for the scholarship/application
- Please note:
- I will write 5 LoRs per year (or 10 for your senior year going into a Ph.D. program) that are geared specifically towards an award or graduate program that require going to a specific website, logging in, and uploading a letter. I need to know what email address this request will come from (or at least the domain).
- The rest of the letters will only be a generic LoR that I will send to an email address.
- I need all of this data in one file because I’m only reserving one time to do it all at once – so I’ll need it before the first due date.