Brandeis Online

July 14, 2025

Unlike job applications where you've likely met your future colleagues face-to-face, online graduate school admissions decisions happen sight unseen. Admissions committees have only your paperwork to evaluate whether you're ready for the challenge ahead. Your letter of recommendation is their chance to hear from someone who's actually watched you work and it can make a big difference in your application. 

Why Letters of Recommendation Matter

A  formal letter of recommendation has become standard across graduate program admissions, including Brandeis Online. We want to hear from those that know your professional experience and strengths best. Typically this is your current or recent supervisors, employers, or a professor.

Admissions teams receive a lot of information from you: a resume/CV, a statement of goals, all your transcripts, and at least one letter of recommendation. All of this gives us an idea of what you have done and helps us see if you and your skills are a good fit for our program. We want students that are prepared and dedicated to succeed in our program. The letter of recommendation gives us an outsider’s perspective on those skills, giving us a perspective on who you are in a professional setting. Your letter of recommendation backs up all the incredible things you’ve listed on your resume and helps us contextualize the goals you’ve written about.

Choosing the Right Recommender 

The best person to write your recommendation is typically a current or past supervisor with whom you’ve had a positive experience. If you’ve just finished another academic program, a letter from a professor can also be a good fit.  This person should be someone who has seen you take on tasks, manage expectations and priorities, and can talk at length about how you face challenges, demonstrate your skills, and show perseverance.

How to Request a Letter 

When asking your recommender, always give at least 2-4 weeks for them to write your letter. We recommend giving them some potential talking points. You can suggest that they discuss how you handled a particular challenge or met a particular goal to help spur their thinking, but the letter content is entirely at their discretion. Letters of recommendation are written and submitted solely by your recommender. 

What Makes a Strong Recommendation 

The best recommendations are specific. Usually, this involves a short introduction, explaining the recommender’s role, how they know you, and for how long. Then, a body paragraph or two going into detail about your professional style and skills. This could be explaining how you tackled a difficult problem or project, an interaction you had with a client (with names changed for privacy), or another instance where you showed your skills. A conclusion giving your recommendation for their master’s program wraps up the letter nicely.

Perseverance, grit, and resilience are especially powerful to mention, as they pertain to the challenge of graduate education coursework. Students in our program learn a myriad of skills and techniques, but these are hard to teach. Most of our students are working professionals with full lives and pursuing a Master’s degree is a huge time commitment for people who are already busy. Resilience helps students push to finish an assignment when they’re busy and persevere through difficult material to make sure they understand it.

Applying to graduate school can be daunting, but for your letter of recommendation, the best rule of thumb is to find someone who has already seen your hard work, your dedication, and resilience. Trust their judgment to present you as a worthy candidate. They’ve seen you thrive before and they know continuing your education will help you grow even more through our programs at Brandeis Online.

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To learn more about how to maximize your application, contact our admissions team at online@brandeis.edu or visit our website.