Letter of Recommendation (LOR): Format, Types, Samples & Common Mistakes

Content Curator | Updated On - Mar 7, 2024

Letter of Recommendation aka LOR is a document endorsing an individual’s professional or academic performance. The letter assesses your overall personality including factors like your qualities, strengths and weaknesses, and team contribution/class participation.

The reference letters are generally written by previous professors, employers, clients, teachers, or counselors. In the academic sphere, LOR is often a necessity for PG programs. Amongst all the courses, LORs play a key role in programs like MBA, MS, Computer Science, etc.

Table of Contents

LOR Types
1.1 Academic LOR vs Professional LOR
Letter of Recommendation Layout
2.1 Content of LOR
Letter of Recommendation for Top Programs
LOR Samples
LOR Writing Tips
Common Mistakes to Avoid While Writing LOR
FAQs

LOR Types

Based on what you have accomplished and what you are doing, students are asked to submit an academic or/and a professional letter of recommendation. Often, gradua te courses in the field of management, engineering, medicine, and education, etc require both academic as well as professional LORs.

Academic LOR vs Professional LOR

Criteria	Academic LOR	Professional LOR
Writers	Professors/ Teachers/Counselors	Supervisors/Managers/Clients
Required for	Bachelors, Masters, Research	Mandatory courses like MBA, MEng, Medicine, Education, etc
No. of Letters Required	2 to 3	1 to 2
Skill-Sets to Focus On	Academic performance and the ability to grasp difficult concepts.	Professional behavior, team-work, and leadership qualities, etc.

Letter of Recommendation Layout

Reference letter is always submitted in the form of a letter discussing the applicant’s qualifications, skills, strengths, and weaknesses. A typical letter of recommendation format comprises of three sections divided into five paragraphs:

Introduction (one paragraph)
Information on applicant’s skills and qualities (Three paragraphs)
Conclusion (one paragraph)

Content of LOR

Basic information on what to include in an LOR and how to submit LOR to universities abroad are:

Recommender relationship with the student
Duration and nature of the relationship
Details about student and student performance (that is; potential research topics, student's potential, professionalism, interpersonal and leadership skills, passion for the field, personal characteristics, and other specialties specific information)
Proof of relevant work experience
Past and current achievements
Analytical ability and critical thinking
Academic and extracurricular potential and activities
Zeal, passion, motivation, and commitment towards the intended program
Uncertified or certified skills relevant to the program applied for
Factors that may affect the applicant's performance
Information on how the applicants fare against contemporaries

Letter of Recommendation for Top Programs

While the basic guidelines for professional and academic letters of recommendation for students remain the same, the requirements and prompts vary from course to course. The requirements and structure for a few top courses are given below:

Program	No. of LORs	Type of LORs	Theme
LOR for MS	Three	At least 2 Academic LORs	Emphasize on academic achievements, capabilities, interests, and career goals
LOR for MBA	Two to three	At least 1 Professional LOR	Highlight problem-solving skills, leadership qualities, strengths, and areas of improvement
LOR for PhD	Two to three	Academic LORs	Talk about knowledge of subject, prior research & publications, academic performance
LOR for UG	One or two	Academic LOR	Academic achievements and relationship with peers should be highlighted

LOR Samples

The Administrative Head
Schulich School of Business
York University, Canada
Respected Sir/Madam,

I am pleased to recommend Mr Rohit Sharma, for admission to the MBA program at Schulich School of Business, the batch of 2022. I have known Mr Sharma for 4 years as an engineering undergraduate department of Electrical Engineering. I have 20+ years of experience in teaching and have served as the Head of the Department for Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi for over 5 years now.

Rohit joined our institute after securing a rank of #97 over 19 lakh competitors in the JEE exams, an engineering entrance examination conducted in India. He is a brilliant student and has never ranked below 5th throughout his bachelor’s career. He is a sincere student well-liked by his teachers and peers alike, with genuine thirst for knowledge. Mr Sharma’s passion for entrepreneurship was apparent from his first year at the institute when he joined the Inventor’s Club at IIT. As part of this society, he has participated in and won numerous competitions by building affordable and practical electrical solutions for household usage.

Additionally, Rohit was really passionate about research. He presented a research paper titled "Innovative Approaches to Power Distribution in Smart Grid Systems" at the International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Renewable Energy, held in New Delhi in 2021. He conducted a thorough study, critically analyzed reports, and put forward the paper. Not only was the faculty impressed by Rohit's sincere approach, but his research paper was also published in the International Journal of Advanced Research.

Mr Sharma will benefit greatly from attending your esteemed business school since he aspires to become an entrepreneur and develop cheap and efficient solutions for household requirements. Not only is he extremely gifted academically, Mr Sharma is a good team worker and also has natural leadership abilities. He has excellent communication skills and inanely grabs the limelight of any room he walks into. When he first started college Mr Sharma sometimes struggled to balance his academics and co-curricular commitments. However, with the years he has developed excellent time management skills, as well.

I am confident that Mr Sharma will be a valuable asset to your institute, achieving great things as well as a helping hand to his peers. He will benefit greatly from the international business exposure that this program offers. I wish him all the best for his life ahead.

I would be glad to provide further information about the candidate if required. I can be reached via email or over the phone at my office on any working day.

Thank You

Yours Sincerely,
Ratna Kaur
(HOD, Department of Electrical Engineering) IIT, Delhi

Below are a few LOR samples for Indian Students planning to pursue higher studies abroad:

LOR Writing Tips

Getting a LOR from your employer or professor might not seem a difficult task as these people have known you for a respectable period of time. However, it is important to ensure that the letter of recommendation format they provide you is impressive and serves the purpose.

Some of the tips to get an impressive letter of recommendation for a student is:

Check the university guidelines: Sometimes universities ask the recommender to adhere to a specific structure both in terms of submissions as well as in terms of content. For instance, a LOR for Ireland is to be submitted along with the application form, whereas, LOR for USA are majorly submitted by recommenders separately.
Tone and Theme of the LOR should be consistent: Recommenders must ensure that they do not use contrasting tones while writing a letter of recommendation. Furthermore, it should include both strengths and weaknesses of the applicant.
Starting with a good introduction: It is a good practice for recommenders to start the letter with a few lines of introduction about themselves, the professional capacity they are serving in currently, and also the years of experience they have. Furthermore, the introduction should establish a relationship between the candidate and the recommender.
Focus on journey and not just milestones: Recommenders often make the mistake of singing praises of their candidates without backing them up with real examples. The best practice is to objectively lay out the skills and strengths of the applicant and include relevant examples of the same. For example, if you believe your candidate has good leadership skills, describe a real scenario where he/ she volunteered to take responsibility, and demonstrated leadership qualities.

Check out the LOR guidelines, samples, and requirements for top study abroad Destinations:

LOR for Canada	LOR for USA
LOR for UK	LOR for Australia
LOR for Germany	LOR for Ireland

Common Mistakes to Avoid While Writing LOR

There are quite a few common mistakes which both recommenders or the students asking for a recommendation must avoid. Following are some tips to submit a great LOR by avoiding those common mistakes:

Using dishonest means: It is very tempting to buy a letter of recommendation nowadays, especially online. However, it would be wise to not fall into these traps. Universities use extremely sophisticated plagiarism detection software, experienced admissions counselors.
Approaching the wrong recommender: Remember to only ask for recommendations from people who have interacted with you recently in a professional or academic capacity. Ideally, you should ask for recommendations from teachers who have guided you in some research/ practical capacity or from former supervisors at the workplace.
Check: How to Choose the Right Recommender?
Not giving your recommender enough time: Recommenders are often busy professionals with tight schedules, therefore, you should always approach recommenders around 3-4 weeks in advance. Furthermore, you should regularly check-up with your recommenders regarding the status of your LOR to ensure they have not forgotten about the all-important task you have entrusted them with.
Not giving your recommender proper guidelines: Don’t forget your professor interacts with 100s of students on a daily basis. And your former manager has tens of employees reporting to him/ her. Take the effort, therefore, to make life a little bit easier for your recommender by updating them with your latest achievements and accomplishments.
Exaggerating your strengths & achievements: It is important that your LOR from a professor or an employer includes both your strengths and weaknesses. Often recommenders focus only on the applicant’s strengths and forget to mention areas of improvement. However, universities tend to appreciate constructive criticism, and including them only serves to make the recommendation more genuine and sincere.

The importance of an LOR cannot be over-emphasized as this letter conveys far more about a candidate than grades, scores, and class rank. In most cases, the admission committee uses the information enshrined in the letter to learn more about the student’s technical abilities, empirical knowledge, interpersonal skills, and professional attributes: qualities that simply cannot be conveyed on an academic transcript.

FAQs

Ques. What do you write in a letter of recommendation?

Ans. Basic information on what to include in an LOR and how to submit LOR to universities abroad are:

Recommender relationship with the student
Duration and nature of the relationship
Details about student and student performance (that is; potential research topics, student's potential, professionalism, interpersonal and leadership skills, passion for the field, personal characteristics, and other specialties specific information)
Proof of relevant work experience
Past and current achievements
Analytical ability and critical thinking
Academic and extracurricular potential and activities
Zeal, passion, motivation, and commitment towards the intended program
Uncertified or certified skills relevant to the program applied for
Factors that may affect the applicant's performance
Information on how the applicants fare against contemporaries

Ques. How is a LOR different from an SOP?

Ans. One of the major differences between a Statement of Purpose and a recommendation letter is that while the former is written by applicants themselves, the latter is written by someone else.

Ques. Who can write a Recommendation Letter?

Ans. Depending upon the type of recommendation/reference required, LOR can be written by a Supervisor, Professor, Employer, or Counsellor. In some cases, students may have to ask their peers/colleagues to write a reference letter for them.

Ques. What is the ideal length of a LOR?

Ans. While there is no stringent word limit prescribed in a format for Letter of Recommendation, an ideal word count is 500-600 words. Unless otherwise specified, recommenders should complete their reference letter within one side of a single A-4 size page.

Ques. Why do you need a recommendation letter?

Ans. Of all the documents submitted during the admission process, it is a LOR that offers an outside perspective of an applicant’s personality traits, achievements, and commitment towards studies.

Ques. How to Request a Letter of Recommendation?

Ans. The best way of approaching a recommender is via email or phone call. Ask them politely and provide all necessary details such as submission guidelines, requirements, etc. Also, while asking for a LOR, don’t forget to point out any specific skills and achievements you want them to highlight.

Ques. Do you need to sign the letter of recommendation?

Ans. Yes, every recommender must sign the LOR they are writing for any student. This goes for even those LORs which are submitted electronically and not via post. The signature on the LOR is a sign of authenticity.

Ques. If not mentioned, which type of LOR should I submit for my graduate degree program?

Ans. If you have any concrete work experience, you should preferably submit 1 academic letter of recommendation and 1 professional letter of recommendation.