Letter of Recommendation

A letter of recommendation (LOR) is a written endorsement submitted by a referee — typically a professor, supervisor, or senior colleague — to a selection committee evaluating a candidate for admission, a fellowship, a grant, or a job. In the policy and international-relations career track, LORs are a near-universal requirement for graduate programs (MPP, MPA, MIA, MA in IR), think-tank fellowships (e.g., Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship, Rhodes, Fulbright, Schwarzman, Marshall), and competitive entry-level roles at the UN, World Bank, and foreign ministries.

A strong LOR generally contains:

• Context of the relationship: how long and in what capacity the referee has known the applicant.
• Specific evidence: concrete projects, papers, negotiations, or research tasks rather than generic praise.
• Comparative ranking: where the applicant stands among peers the referee has supervised.
• Fit assessment: why the candidate suits the particular program or role.

Most graduate programs request two to three letters, submitted directly by the referee through an online portal to preserve confidentiality. Under the U.S. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA, 1974), applicants to U.S. institutions are usually offered the option to waive their right to view the letter; waived letters are generally considered more credible by admissions readers.

For Model UN delegates and junior researchers, useful referees include faculty advisors, head delegates, internship supervisors at NGOs or missions, and research mentors. Best practice is to ask at least four to six weeks in advance, provide the referee with a CV, a draft personal statement, a list of programs with deadlines, and a short memo highlighting relevant accomplishments. Some fellowships (e.g., Fulbright U.S. Student Program) also require a separate foreign language evaluation or affiliation letter, which are distinct documents and should not be conflated with the standard LOR. Letters are confidential, non-transferable between most applications, and increasingly submitted as PDFs with verified institutional email signatures.