Letters of Recommendation
All programs require letters of recommendation; most require three. Letters from psychology faculty members are most desirable, but don't hesitate to ask faculty members in other disciplines for a letter if they know you and if you think they have a good impression of your academic or research abilities. Most students need to plan ahead to be able to ask three faculty members to write letters for them. Take some smaller classes, honors courses, or lab courses in which you have an opportunity to become known by a faculty member. A faculty member in a lecture course can usually write little more than that you were in the top XX percent of the class; a faculty member in a smaller course, especially one with a substantial writing or research component, can say more. You can, if you want, submit additional letters from work supervisors or people with whom you have worked in an academic setting, if you think they can address your motivation and ability to do advanced academic work. However, do not substitute those letters for letters from faculty members. Letters from work supervisors or people outside your university are given much less weight by admissions committees.
It is acceptable to ask a faculty member to write a letter to each of the 10 or so programs to which you are applying: most will write one letter and photocopy it to attach to the recommendation forms supplied by each school. You should, however, make the recommender's task as easy as possible. You should supply a list of the schools and programs that you are applying to and their admission deadlines; the recommendation forms with the top sections correctly filled out and the right of access to the letter waived; and stamped envelopes addressed to the schools with the sender's return address on them. Your recommenders will want some or all of the following information from you to write a knowledgeable letter: a copy of your statement; your various GPAs (overall, upper-division, and psychology); psychology courses taken; other areas of concentration besides psychology (minor or other set of courses); GRE scores (if known); relevant research and work experience; and any papers written for the course(s) taken from them.
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