Recommendation Letter Template (For Graduate School)
Grad school letters have specific conventions and reviewers who read hundreds. Here's the template that works — and the parts everyone gets wrong.
You're writing a grad school recommendation. The committee will read hundreds of these. They have a specific set of things they're looking for, mostly inferable from the structure of the strong letters they've seen before. The standard advice — "be specific" — is true and incomplete; grad school letters have conventions that go beyond specificity, and reviewers can tell when you don't know them.
Below is the template that strong academic recommenders use, broken into the components reviewers actually weigh. Each section has a function. Skip one and the letter is weaker; do all five and it does its job.
Section 1: Your relationship and credibility
Open with your name and the basis for evaluating the applicant. "I am [your title] at [institution]. I taught [Applicant] in my graduate seminar on [topic] in [year], where she completed [specific work]." Reviewers want to know: what's this person's standing in the field, and how well do they know the applicant? Establish both in two sentences. Don't bury credentials; don't overstate intimacy. Calibrated transparency is what gives the rest of the letter weight.
Section 2: The headline judgment with a comparison frame
State your overall assessment with a peer comparison. "Of the [N] graduate students I have advised in the last [decade], she is in the top [tier] in terms of [specific dimensions]." The frame matters as much as the rating — "top three of fifteen" is more meaningful than "truly exceptional." Reviewers calibrate against the comparisons you provide, so make them concrete. If you're comparing to the field broadly, say so. If only to your own students, say that too.
Section 3: A specific scholarly anecdote
One paragraph showing the applicant's thinking in action. The seminar where they asked the question that reframed the discussion. The paper where they made an argument you hadn't seen made before. The research project where they solved a methodological problem unexpectedly. This is the section that distinguishes strong applicants — committees are looking for evidence of intellectual ability, not just hard work. Pick a moment that demonstrates the thinking, not the dutifulness.
Section 4: Their fit for graduate work specifically
Grad school requires different skills than coursework — independent research, sustained writing, ability to follow a question through ambiguity. Speak to whether you've seen these. "In her senior thesis, she chose a topic where the literature was thin and built her own framework over six months." Reviewers specifically want to know whether the applicant can survive graduate study; coursework excellence doesn't predict that on its own. This section is what most letters skip and what reviewers most need.
Section 5: The specific endorsement with caveats acknowledged
Close with a specific recommendation and any honest caveats. "I recommend her without reservation for doctoral study in [field]. Her [strength] is exceptional; her [development area] will likely deepen with the kind of mentorship your program provides." The brief acknowledgment of an area for growth makes the strong endorsement credible — letters with no caveats read as form letters. Reviewers trust letters that engage the real picture of the applicant; pure praise is read as either lazy or insincere.
A letter that reads like the strong ones
Ghost Writer takes your knowledge of the applicant, the specific program, and your scholarly relationship, and produces a five-section grad school letter built on real evidence.