Dr. Paige Tan's

Requesting a Recommendation Letter

Klungklung, Bali, Indonesia (Tan)

Students, I am often asked to provide recommendation letters for jobs and graduate school, it will be easier for me to provide a letter if:

1) I know who you are. Did you distinguish yourself in class in some way?  Please note that depending on the prestige of the program for which you are applying, the grade that you received in my course is important.  Generally, I am unable to write a recommendation for someone who received lower than a B in any of my courses. For some types of programs, only an A will do.

2) You give me enough time to produce the letter, at least a month, preferably more.

3) You provide the following information/documents to assist in my writing the letter: the courses you took with me (including semester taken), all papers produced for my courses (e-copies are fine), a statement about why you are applying for x and how your academic and professional background prepares you to succeed, a resume, the physical addresses for all programs to which you're applying (even if the letter will be submitted electronically), and anything else you think might be helpful, such as what you would like me to stress in the letter.

4) You remember that the price of doing a letter is remembering to let me know what happened with the application and hopefully keeping up long after you've graduated. I accept "friending" on Facebook as payment.

Any questions, contact Dr. Tan for more information at tanp@uncw.edu.

January 13, 2011.

Dr. Tan's homepage: http://people.uncw.edu/tanp/.