reference letter
Dear Admissions Committee,
I am writing this letter to strongly recommend Phyllis Wang for the position of PhD in your department. She completed her M.S. in my lab from 2013 to 2015 and ranked among my best students. I recommend her to you highly.
Ms. Wang was a member of millimeter wave group in my lab. Her main work was the design of oscillator and PLL. She demonstrated the ability to work independently with great intelligence and enthusiasm. She also put in many long hours. She continued to read papers and books about PLL and did a lot of simulations and analyses. We had group meeting every week, and she always made progress and generated interesting hypotheses on the implementation of PLL. She redesigned a 40 GHz PLL which was used in transceivers implemented by my PhD students. That work was published in several high quality papers including JSSC, on which Phyllis is a coauthor. She has a solid understanding of PLL system and PLL circuits design.
Furthermore, she independently designed an 80 GHz DCO based on DiCAD technique and implemented it in 65nm CMOS. This work shows not only her ability to quickly master different kinds of simulation software and to understand the principle of simulation results but also her sophisticated operation skill of testing instruments. This work was published in SCI journal, which attests to her hard work and outstanding writing skill. Ms. Wang proved herself an excellent researcher.
I was especially taken by Ms. Wang's high self-motivation and enthusiasm in her major. She did a good job in my graduate class - RF CMOS Integrated Circuits design. To further strengthen her basic knowledge on integrated circuits, she audited my undergraduate class: Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits.When she had questions she always approached me or other students in my lab to solve those problems. She is an enterprising student who pursues with vigor to understand each topic and has shown perseverance to tackle problems.
In short, I give Phyllis Wang my highest recommendation. She is one of my best students. She did an outstanding job in her position and was an asset to my lab. With superb academic background and dedication for research work, I am confidence that she will excel in her future PhD studies.
If I can be of any further assistance, or provide you with any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best Regards,
Holt Educational Consultant - / 15388 Phyllis, this is not a very useful recommendation letter because it is very obviously written by the person applying for university admission. I must recommend that you change the slant of this letter to a specific format in order to not let the reviewer know that you are recommending yourself for the student slot and just having your professor sign for it. Revise the essay and make sure that you write it to include only the following information:
1. The name and position of the person recommending you.
2. How the person came to know you, the duration of that relationship.
3. His observations of your work ethic as a student in his class. Do not include any information that he may not have access to regarding your participation in other events other than his class or activities where he does not have direct supervision and observation of your actions.
4. Your GPA performance in his class
5. Why he thinks you will be a success as a PhD student.
6. His contact information should an interview with him/her be required for verification purposes.
It is the verification interview that you have to be worried about because that is how the university learns of fake recommendations that cancel your application for admission. That is why I always ask the students to include only information regarding the class that they took with the professor in all their letters. If you include information the professor cannot verify, defend, or may sound uncertain about when responding to verification questions or, if the information he will be providing seems questionable in relation to your application, that suspicion will be enough to negate your chances of admission. Remember, you are attesting to the fact that all the information you will be providing is accurate and honest when you submit your documents, so faking a recommendation letter will be a violation of that trust. However, due to language constraints, you could work around that limitation, provided that you stick to only the information I am strongly recommending for the creation of your recommendation letter. A professor will know that only the aforementioned information is required in a proper recommendation letter so it will pass scrutiny.
@ Holt
I tried hard to rewrite the recommendation letter according to your valuable advice. My teacher's personal information is added by him. Do you think this is an effective letter now?
Here is the letter:
I am writing this letter to strongly recommend Phyllis Wang for the position of PhD in your department. I have acquainted with Ms. Wang for the last five years, out of which she spent two and a half years working as research assistant in my lab. After her graduation, She occasionally came back to school for my advice on her career. With that experience, I can confidently assert that her quality makes her an outstanding student with a strong potential for research.
During her research time under my supervision, She has showed extraordinary intellect and I was impressed by her solid and profound expertise. She could gain as much background information as possible through various means when coming to a new research direction. I have found that She has a good comprehension of the fundamentals and has a incisive understanding of EDA tools, knowing not only how to use them but also the principles behind the operational method. Her ideas are innovative and creative and she could give logical solutions for the problems occurring in the projects. These were demonstrated through her weekly report held in my lab.
Besides, She is a quick learner and a prompt executor. When she has a task, she would work it out quickly and give feedback soon. When her first chip came back from factory , She gave me a profile of the chip's working performance in three days, which was really a quick response since there were many things to do before getting a result.
Her enthusiasm in analog IC design has been seen from her performance in my class - RF CMOS Integrated Circuits design, which demands a lot of logical and analytical thinking. She is both a creative problem solver and a provoking questioner.She has super grade in my class. In addition, she is a self-starting, motivated individual. To broaden and strengthen her knowledge in IC design, she audited several classes spontaneously, one of which is my undergraduate class. Her passion and energy to work well on academic study impress me deeply.
Her efforts was attested by the paper she published. Her work on an 80 GHz DCO was published in SCI journal and she is the first author. This shows her hard work and outstanding professional writing skill.
Ms. Wang is an optimistic lady with a pleasant personality and her leadership can be seen from her class activities. A dancing show including twelve people, designed and taught by her, was the most popular show on one year's new year party.
Ms. Wang has come to me and show her eagerness to further her academic study. I was impressed by her careful consideration and dedication. I am willing to recommend her to you highly. She has the characteristics to become an excellent PhD. Her intellectual ability, enthusiasm and initiative, solid academic background and preparedness of academic research make her a good candidate for your PhD programs. I confirm that Ms. Wang is fully qualified to pursue a PhD degree in your department.
Sincerely