Project Management Reference Letter for Chevening

Reference Letter from Academic Advisor

- Chevening Scholarship Purposes

To The High Commission,

It is a great pleasure to write this recommendation letter for XXX in regards to her application to Chevening Scholarship Program in the UK. I have known her since 2008 when she started as a freshman in Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering, XXX University. I was her academic advisor and also her lecturer for Concrete Structure course.

As her academic advisor, I can see her development throughout the academic years. I was given the idea that she is a hard worker and strong-willed person. She could overcome the failure with persistence in order to achieve her goals. Furthermore, I could see she is an industrious student. As she attended my course in Concrete Structure, she showed a high interest in the class. She accomplished the tasks and assignments given in time and got a good result at the end of the semester.

Besides academic activities, she also participated in extracurricular activities. She actively engaged in Civil Engineering Student Union and XXX Club. She has a high ability to lead a group as she was chosen as XXX Club leader. I was impressed that she could well-managed her time and graduate with a good grade in time. In my personal point of view, she is a well-mannered person who can communicate easily with colleagues and superiors.

After she graduated, she was working in multinational EPCI Company. She was experiencing both engineering and project management in the company. In the time that she consulted with me, she showed a strong determination to continue her study and career in Project Management. As this major was her specialization during her final assignment project, I believe she will be able to complete this master degree in timely manner.

In summary, I give her my highest recommendation to continue study Project Management in the UK with the support of Chevening Scholarship. I am convinced that she has intellectual abilities, capacity, and willingness to develop her potential to achieve and complete the program she chose.

FI, the biggest mistake that students who write their own recommendation letters make is that they tend to overstep the boundaries of the student description, turning the letter into an obvious personal statement rather than an academic review of the applicant's abilities. The reviewers know about this trick and can spot such a letter from the first sentence written. That means, the letter is then disregarded and your total application comes into question with regards to the validity of the content of your application. Remember that when you apply, you are asked to swear that the information you will be presenting is factual, correct, and true. When a letter comes in, such as the one you wrote, all of those criteria are obviously violated and the professor will get caught in the lie that you created in the letter once he is contacted to confirm the information provided in the letter.

In order to make this letter work, you must focus the information only on the academic aspect which the professor can confirm in an interview. That means, you discuss in what capacity this professor was your academic advisor (as he cannot be your overall academic advisor in college. That does not exist. General class advisors are only available in elementary and high school levels), your GPA, your exam performance (average grade), your final project in his class and the results of that project that impressed him, and how he views your abilities in terms of meeting the demands of a masters class. You should remove the following:

1. Reference to extra curricular activities
2. Reference to your working at EPCI

The rest of the essay can be better developed to depict your abilities as a student who has the capacity to learn and has a passion for the course. That is what the professor should be discussing in the recommendation letter. That revision will make the letter sound more like your professor wrote it instead of yourself.