TEM #006: Have a heart of gold?
July 21, 2023
Hi there!
Time to celebrate, you’ve made it to another summer Friday 🥳
This week’s highlights:
Your education affirmation
5 secrets to get an outstanding letter of recommendation
Action steps for the next week
The Golden Hour
Education affirmation.
True gold fears no fire (真金不怕火炼). - Chinese proverb
On the Blog.
As someone who has written 100+ letters of recommendation (and read 20x that), I know exactly how powerful a well-written letter is to someone’s application.
Once you’ve decided to apply, do these tips well in advance of requesting a letter to guarantee you’ll get one that sings your praises.
Application Action Steps.
Choose your own adventure 🚁
Thinking about school in the future?
A tip from this week’s blog: Be an outstanding contributor.
How to do this: When in class or on a team, be intentional with your research and contributions toward a common goal. Instructors and supervisors notice who lifts up the team during a project.
^ And these are the people who will write you a strong letter of recommendation one day.
Actively applying later this year?
Friendly reminder to start reaching out to your potential recommenders soon.
Pro tip: Have a list of 3-5 people. Most schools want 3 letters, and it’s super important to have back-ups (because life happens even to recommenders with good intentions).
Fun fact.
Golden retrievers are the best animals on the planet.
To celebrate the breed’s 155th anniversary, there was a party in Scotland with hundreds of golden retrievers living their best life.
Brb, updating my travel bucket list.
Quick question:
Would it be helpful if I drafted an email that you could send to potential recommenders to see if they’d write you an outstanding letter?
If yes, hit reply to this email (it goes right to my inbox, not the ether) and put “Recommender email, please!” in the message.
As always: You’ve got this!
Dr. Jena
p.s. If you signed up for this newsletter for golden retriever references, I hope this edition was as fun for you as it was for me! 🐾
Related Posts
Hi! I’m Dr. Jena. I help working professionals confidently apply to graduate school and advanced degree programs so they can achieve their career goals.
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