Recommendation (undergraduate)

Who can recommend you

One adult who knows your situation first-hand and is not a member of your family. That is the whole rule.

• A professor or an instructor, in any subject. A teaching assistant who taught you also counts.
• An academic advisor, a dean, or a staff member in a student support office.
• An employer or a supervisor, including from work you do to pay for school.
• A research mentor, an internship supervisor, or the director of a program you are part of.
• A faith or community leader, a caseworker, or a social worker.

There is no subject requirement and no preference for someone who taught you in your field. Choose the person who can say the most about your situation, not the person with the best title.

A parent, guardian, sibling, spouse, or other relative may not recommend you. Everything a family member would tell us belongs in your own answers instead.

Graduate applicants follow the same rule. You and undergraduate applicants share one application form.

What we ask them

There is no letter to write. Your recommender opens a form with four questions and one readiness check, and most people finish it in about fifteen minutes.

1. How you know this student, and for how long.
2. What you know first-hand about this student’s circumstances.
3. One thing this student did with limited time, money, or support.
4. Optional: what this student will not say about themselves.

The readiness check asks whether the student is ready to do the work of the program ahead: yes, yes with support, not sure, or no. It sets a floor. It is not a ranking, and “yes with support” is a normal answer, not a mark against you.

Send your recommender to For recommenders. That page shows them the questions before they start.

How to ask

Ask the person first, then name them in your application. The portal emails them a link as soon as you do. Tell them the deadline is April 1, 2027 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific.

You may add a second recommendation, and only one. Add it if a second adult knows something the first cannot tell us. A second form that repeats the first adds nothing.

If you have been out of school for some years, a manager or a supervisor from your work is a better choice than a professor who no longer remembers you.

If your recommender is late

Submit your own part of the application by the deadline. We keep a grace period open after the deadline for recommendations to arrive, so a slow recommender does not sink an application that is otherwise in on time.

You can see whether the form has arrived in the portal. See After you apply.