Looking for a reference letter?

If you are looking for someone to write a reference letter for graduate school, or perhaps for some other purpose, please consider the following:

• I can only write a letter for students I have interacted with. Interaction by email is sometimes enough, but I must have interacted individually with you to some extent.
• Reference letters are expected to discuss your communication skills. If I have not communicated with you, I cannot assess those skills.
• If your request for a reference letter is sufficiently long and detailed, it is possible that it will count as having interacted with you. This is almost never the case.

If you still want to ask me, please include this information in your email:

• how I know you (you took my CISC yyy course in Fall/Winter 20xx, you asked questions on Piazza, you attended office hours, etc.—do not assume I remember your name, I teach hundreds of students a year);
• what the letter is for (e.g. graduate school) and the expected timeframe for writing the letter (if I agree to write it);
• a CV/résumé;
• an unofficial transcript (except for the Undergraduate Chair, professors cannot access your transcript); and
• include the line "I have read your references.html page."

—Jana