几乎所有的大学都会要求美国留学申请人提出推荐信(Recommendation Letter),评审委员借着推荐者的文字描述,可以了解申请人的背景状况。它可说明各种成绩单数字以外的其它意义,补充过于计量化、公式化审核的一种评估方式。 美国留学申请研究所一般要求三封推荐信推荐人的身份可以是曾经教你的教授,或是现(曾)职工作单位主管,自已视需要组合。例如,如果你毕业十年,你的推荐人可应有二封工作主管为宜,而毕业一两年顶多一封即足够。 推荐人的职务,并不一定愈高愈有利,相反地,认识你愈久而职称不高,内容又适当地表达你的个性(Personality),才是上乘的推荐。以下,我们将提供你推荐信需注意的要点,帮助你着手起稿推荐信：
(一)不要拖时间,尽快起草：推荐信需要时间写,何况又得配合老师的时间。所以尽快起草你的推荐信,以便使你的推荐者有充裕的时间为你的推荐信效力。
(二)提供充份的信息给推荐者：如果你要推荐者能掌握你的优点,你得提供充份的信息。自然,要尽量具体避免空洞地陈述。同时,你也该提供你申请学校截止日期给推荐者参考,以免推荐者耽误了你的申请。
(三)各推荐信的打字书信字体,宜选不同的型式,以示不同的推荐者。属需要圈选的表格者,可以直接以手稿填入。
(四)在逻辑推理下,推荐者不可能知道或了解你的特质,请勿提及。譬如说,学生课外活动的表现就不适于平常教授正式科目的教授提及,除非教授也参与其中。又如其它课堂的表现,除非其它教授曾经提及过,否则不适合此科教授评论学生在其它科目的表现。再如,学生如何在图书馆查数据、写报告花费的时间,一般老师是不可能知之甚详,除非实在太特殊而略有耳闻,故也不适合在推荐信中提及。
(五)推荐信的内容尽量简短有力：不要虚无空洞的形容词,例如他任职于某公司时,勤劳、负责、认真、为人谦虚、诚恳等语句,不宜多引用,超好讲出具体事实,才不流于形式,尤其不要抄袭市面的书信范例,以免流于陈腔滥调,落入俗套。
(六)如果可能的话,推荐者超好与你修的科目或学校相关。譬如说：如果你将来计划主修英文,超好推荐人之一是英文老师。又如,如果你申请常春藤名校(IVY LEAGUE SCHOOL),推荐者若也是常春藤名校出身,则其推荐信将更有力。
(七)适当提及自己的“缺点”。一封推荐信如果阐述的完全是被推荐的同学的优点，不免让人觉得有粉饰之嫌，如果能恰当地加入一些“缺点”，不仅能令推荐信真实，还会通过“似贬实褒”，反而突出了被推荐人的特殊气质。例如计算机专业、数学专业乃至金融专业的同学，在推荐信中可以考虑加入这样的词句：“该生有时因为过分专注于研究工作而难以平衡生活各方面的关系，这不失为一种美中不足”。这句话似乎是在谈“缺点”，但很明显这样的“缺点”其实正是很多专业超渴望的“缺点”——废寝忘食的工作态度，从而使得“缺点”也为申请提供了巨大帮助。
推荐信包含的主要题材
(一)与申请者的关系：表达清楚何种方式认识。譬如说是老师、指导教授,老板等。说明交往多久,如果是教授学生关系,对教授的科目做一个简短的说明,如果推荐信者是你的老板(主管),请详细说明你的工作职责。
(二)推荐者对申请人人格个性特征的印象：譬如学习精神、工作态度、与同事(同学)相处的情形、组织领导能力、学术专长、研究能力、有无工作经验与否,并加注评语。
(三)推荐者对你能否顺利完成学位的看法：譬如说,描述你对特别分配职务上的表现,以表现你的应变能力。又如,申请者是否有其它潜力未发挥? 如果申请者的成绩未尽理想,评述你对申请者的看法。解释申请者虽然形式上的成绩未尽理想,却有极深厚的潜力尚未发挥。如果申请者转系,也可以强调申请者有强烈的学习动机,根据推荐者的观察,相信以申请者的表现,一定可以成功完成学业。
(四)推荐者对申请人人格个性特征的印象：譬如学习精神、工作态度、与同事(同学)相处的情形、组织领导能力、学术专长、研究能力、有无工作经验与否,并加注评语。
(五)重述推荐者对申请人的支持及能力的确认,以再次肯定对申请人的支持与推荐。
美国留学申请推荐信的模式
推荐信的格式有些模式可循,以下将针对各段提供模式作参考：
(一)抬头可用的格式有： Dear Sir/Madam; To Whom It May Concern:
(二)超好段：引文句子可以引用如： “It is a pleasure to recommend to you (name), a former student of mine at (name of university).” “I an very happy to have this opportunity to recommend (name), who is presently applying for admission to your graduate (or undergraduate) program in (name of program).” “I understand that (name) is applying for admissions to your graduate (undergraduate) school, and has requested that I write this letter of recommendation for her/him.” “In my capacity as professor at xxxx University, I have known xxx for three years, as both his/her advisor and professor.”
(三)第二段：这段可以提供超实质的内容。
譬如,如果推荐者是教授, 解释学生在他门下所修的课程。 “(name) took two of my courses during the 1984-85 academic year, as follows; “xxxxx” and “xxxxx”.” “(Name) was enrolled in three of classes from September 1984 to June 1986 “xxx” and “xxx”.” 接下来,教授写一些有关申请人在课堂上的表现,如完成的研究计划、实验室研究、研究报告、考试的成绩、课堂态度、讨论课的参与等,举出实例。 “In my class (es), (name) did excellent work. She always listened attentively, participated activitely in class, and handed in very good written assignment. “In particular, his/her research paper on (topic) was of exceptionally high quality, and showed that s/he fully understands and has a strong background in his/her field.” 如果推荐人是工作主管,首先一定要仔细陈述申请人的工作职责,并对申请者工作表现作一评估。如果可能的话尽量列举实例。 “When (name) held the position of (job title) in this company she was one s/he was one of my best employees. His/her job responsibilities included (describe them), and s/he carried out his/her duties with exceptional skill and professionalism.” “S/he not only did his/her own work, but also helped other employees, and made many valuable contributions to the efficient running to our firm.” 第二段超后一段：可以提及申请人在班上(或公司里)的比较表现(譬如排名)： “I was rate (name)'s academic ability as in the top 10% of his/her class.” “Compared against other students that I have taught, I would say that (name) ranks in the upper 10%. 接下来,推荐者可对申请人能否成功完成学业提出看法。举例： “Based on his/her previous performance, I am certain that (name) would be a very successful student at your university.” “I believe that (name) possesses all the qualities necessary to make an excellent graduate student in his/her chosen field, and am sure that s/he will make a fine addition to your campus.”
(四)第三段：如果还有其它话想说,请另写一段.例如：英文能力、沟通技巧、领导才能、特殊学术或工作背景。譬如说,如果申请人欲申请的科系是企管系,推荐者可着力描写他们有关申请人商业的专门技术、领导才能,以及申请者所参加的商业活动,例如,有关商业方面的组织社团。又如,申请人申请护理研究所,推荐者可着力描写他们关怀的态度、处理实验室的技能,或是对病人的奉献。
(五)超后,以几句结尾作总结; “Therefore, I am happy to highly and without reservation recommend (name) for admission to your graduate program. Your kind/serious consideration of his/her application would be most appreciated.” “I am thus pleased to give my full support and recommendation to (name)'s application for admission to your school. If any further information is required, please feel free to contact me.”
签名：Sincerely, Sincerely yours, Very truly yours, With best regards,
下面结合上面的部分内容，给出一篇推荐信样例(被推荐的同学是数学系的)
Dear Sir/Madam:
I am writing this letter of recommendation for Mr.Caleb,my former student. I have known Mr. Caleb for more than 6 years since his freshman year at "University of Minnesota". At that time, he took the course-- "Mathematical Analysis," which I taught mainly for junior students majoring in Mathematics. To my surprise, I found he was among the few students in his class who could keep up with the pace of my lectures. Moreover, he often posed thought-provoking questions during the course. Thus it was natural that I liked discussing with this young man and became familiar with him. The more I knew him, the more I found he was talented at mathematics. As you can see, he got excellent scores on the course. In fact, he ranked No. 1 on this 270 hours course in the talented student class which has 34 intelligent others. With his outstanding talent and solid mathematical background, he also did quite well in most other courses during his undergraduate study. By the way, you may wonder why his undergraduate scores look not so good compared to other Chinese applicants. It is easy to explain, because he belonged to the talented student class, which were required to endure harder test papers and stricter grading than most other college students did at least at "University of Minnesota". He even served as Prof. Linda s Research Assistant for one year. No one could deny his commitment to his job. As a matter of fact, Prof. Linda s electronic lab happened to be neighboring my office and I could always see him working in the lab, either repairing the instruments or helping Prof. Linda collect lab reports. Maybe one more example will demonstrate his commitment more clearly. Once he suggested compiling a FORTRAN program to solve a complicated circuit problem in his class. In order to do that, he had to do a lot of computer work. However, because there were few computers available in our computer lab, he had to wake up at 5 a.m. in winter (please note: "Twin city" is a downtown near the north border of China, so it is pretty cold in winter and the heating system is not working very well.) to ensure the 1st position of the long waiting line for his classmates and himself! At last he and his classmates finished the program successfully with his great efforts. As to his personality, I would like to say Mr. Caleb is a warm-hearted, honest and upright student. He was always ready to help others. During my lectures, many students got confused at some points and I could always see Mr. Caleb help them explain during breaks. In the meanwhile, I must admit that Mr. Caleb was a bit impatient sometimes. Finally, I would like to conclude my recommendation as follows: frankly, Mr. Caleb is not a genius, but I promise his great intelligence, commitment to work and his kind nature will impress you deeply. Thus I recommend him without reservation for his admission and financial aid to your program. Please feel free to contact me if needed. Sincerely Yours, XXX
