Sincere Advice on Recommendation letter, University of Texas, Austin.

Recommendation for the Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate program

Hello there.
My name is Santiago and I'm planning to apply for graduate school at UT, Austin - electrical and computer engineering department. Recently, I asked a friend and professor of mine I took a class with during my undergraduate course for a recommendation letter, and he said that I could write it and handed it over to him once finished. Thus, I'd like to appeal to your benevolent aid and feedback over this.

As a University Professor, it is my pleasure to recommend Mr. Santiago for the Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate program at the University of Texas at Austin. I first met Santiago 4 years ago during the radio and mobile communications course I taught here at the University of Cauca and through which he demonstrated to be a remarkably meticulous and thoughtful student.

In and out of the classroom, Santiago has been a benign person to be around and teach. Eager to always help other fellow students with their struggles, while maintaining a painstaking eye on his own assignments, Santiago has successfully demonstrated he is qualified and willing to thrive in any academic community setting.

A top-tier learner, He also maintained a consistent focus on his learning as he'd ask me for clarification when needed or would dive deeper into certain subjects such as signal transmission to further advance his overall understanding. I believe Santiago's fervent enthusiasm for learning and taking on challenging subjects will help him in achieving outstanding results at UTA.

Speaking more deeply, Santiago is very logical-driven and a good problem solver. During the course development, he was always at the forefront when it came to soundly apply concepts in solving compounded engineering problems as showed by Santiago's performance in all project submissions. Santiago is also gifted with leadership and project management skills. For instance, he worked on radiocommunications projects involving radio propagation planning and radio coverture during which he coordinated the project's planning, organized it into achievable milestones, and prioritized tasks by carefully assigning them to his fellow team members.

Santiago's enthusiastic diligence and well-above-average contribution to analyzing, developing, and implementing engineering solutions were incontestable evidence of his proficiency, showing his stalwart commitment to his peers, his class, and himself.

Santiago's diverse skill set, both on a personal and academic level, makes him a great complementary asset to any setting and community.
Thus, I highly believe Santiago would be a good candidate for your program and I recommend his candidacy without reservation. For any further questions regarding his application, please contact me at your earliest convenience.

Best regards
Victor Fabián Miramá Pérez

Why are you asking for a recommendation from your university professor? You are already a professional, whose supervisor should be writing a recommendation letter for you. The recommendation letter from your supervisor carries more weight than that of your professor because your supervisor can justify your professional interest in a masters course in a manner that your old professor cannot. Somebody who taught you 4 years ago will not be considered an authority regarding your mettle as a student. As a masters degree student, you will be expected to balance your profession with your studies. That is why the supervisor makes for a better reference than your professor. That said, I will review this reference letter in as much as it might help your application, but it will not help you by much since the person writing the reference letter knew you a long time ago and has not had any recent interaction with you as a professional, which is the main basis of the reference letter for a masters course. Any reference letter from a person who has known you, but has not been in contact with you in recent times never helps in an application. The information is too dated and irrelevant in connection to your masters course and professional qualifications.

@Holt
Thanks for your feedback. I completely agree with you as a professional reference would be the most appropriate. The thing is I just graduated in January and even though I worked as a software engineer, it was just a small project that was canceled because of the pandemic. Another thing is not 4 years ago, it's 2, I just wrote that cause was sure - which anyway I believe it's a little bit outdated. I'm being requested 3 letters of reference, how many of those should be professional and academic?

Thanks a lot