Writing A Good Recommendation Letter For Scholarship Applications

Some of the popular scholarships will be opening soon. Chevening, Commonwealth, MasterCard Foundation, etc. One of the most important part of your application for anything these days – admission, scholarships, etc., are your recommendation letters. Unfortunately, too many of the people we ask to write us these letters, though they mean well, write really poor recommendations.

A good recommendation letter should be full of anecdotes or stories, or descriptions of what you’ve done or achieved and how you did those things, as well as the impact of your actions. It is not a listing of desirable qualities. So a recommendation letter that says “X is a great team player, is hardworking, very intelligent, and kind” doesn’t really say anything. Same as a CV that lists these things. Anyone can assign themselves positive qualities. The evaluators want to see how this person showed teamwork, hard work, intelligence, and kindness. Nothing shows better than stories or specifics.

When I write recommendation letters for my students you see sentences like, “I remember how John, while in JSS 2 went out of his way to teach junior students who were struggling with Mathematics.” This is enough to show this student cares about others. I don’t need to say he is caring. Listing qualities we do not posses is easy, making up stories that show qualities we’ve not demonstrated isn’t that easy.

There are many things you do not have the room to say in your personal statement. A great recommendation should fill these gaps, hence complementing your statement, résumé, and academic qualifications.

Below is a sample of the kind of recommendation letter that is truly supportive and strong.

“Letter of Recommendation for Solomon Itodo

It is with great enthusiasm that I write to recommend Solomon Itodo for your scholarship programme. I have known him for five years, in my capacity as his teacher, mentor, and Executive Director of the New Frontiers Youth Forum, where he is presently the Secretary. In all these years, Solomon has demonstrated excellent academic scholarship, great leadership, and a strong willingness to help others improve, especially academically. He has contributed to school and community development initiatives, all of which position him as a great candidate for the Carnegie Foundation Scholarship Programme.

Solomon comes from a background of financial difficulty where his parents consistently struggled to pay his fees, yet has never allowed the circumstances at home to dampen his spirit, as many in his shoes would have. He has continuously striven to rise above his environment, using his meagre savings to buy current affairs booklets to educate himself about the world. Solomon is the most knowledgeable student I have met in all five years of my time as a teacher here – readily having something to say in fields like philosophy, medicine, economics, and climate change – all of which was self-learned. I have never met a student with more drive for self-development.

Academically, this student has always excelled, and his grades are eloquent testimony to this fact. In my chemistry classes, he was usually a step ahead of his mates because he wasn’t one to swallow what I taught in class hook, line, and sinker. He always went the extra mile for self-knowledge. I called him Associate Professor in my Chemistry class, and if there was something I forgot, he was the one student I resorted to, and he almost always knew the answers. A shining point of note in his academic excellence was when he represented our school as an SS 1 student in a chemistry competition meant for SS 2 students and still emerged 26th out of over 300 students in the state.

Outside the classroom, Solomon has demonstrated sterling leadership. He was both the Laboratory Prefect and President of the Science Club (JETS Club); he had a particular interest in developing junior students when many of his mates would prefer to occupy the limelight themselves. Easily the best communicator our school has seen, Solomon made several presentations on the assembly ground and also coached junior students to do the same. Always the initiator, he was instrumental in the setting up of a Junior JETS Chapter while he was JETS President. Also, as the President of JETS Club, Solomon was one of those who got students to start doing science projects in the school. In his time, he also organised the first science quiz competition for students in the school; and not satisfied with excelling alone, he and his team decided to introduce the Science Club in a nearby school, providing mentoring to them as well. Solomon always worked well with others; hence he was typically featured in the plans of actions of other prefects.

Outside school, Solomon is a member of the New Frontiers Youth Forum, a community-based leadership organisation for young people. He has been a devoted member and an excellent secretary. In line with the ideology of this organisation, Solomon has also volunteered to teach kids basic literacy in our community. After finishing secondary school, he came back to volunteer as a teacher, taking several hours to teach Chemistry and Computer Science in conventional classrooms as well as organising extra specialised lessons for a few students for free – a task he did with utmost enthusiasm.

There is so much to say about this student, not least about his forthrightness. During their final exams, he was one of only few students who refused to cheat, suffering the persecution of his classmates. The resilience he showed in sticking to his moral values in the face of this opposition is a testament to his mental toughness. In one sentence, I’d say, Solomon is easily one of the all-round best students I have had the good fortune of teaching, and if there were a Hall of Fame in our school with three faces on it, his face would be up there.

I always knew he was going to study medicine, seeing how as an SS 1 student, he was already deeply involved with biology concepts taught in SS 3, making several complex presentations on the assembly ground on human anatomy. So, I am very confident he has both the mental capacity and motivation to succeed in his chosen career path. Besides his great aptitude and interest in human biology, I am sure a primary motivation to pursue a career in medicine is the desire to help people in need of medical intervention.  Easily attuned to the suffering of others, Solomon recommended several disadvantaged kids in his neighbourhood for enrolment in our scholarship programme.

I am very excited about this opportunity and have no single shred of reservation about his suitability for this scholarship. I sincerely hope you find him worthy of this chance.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Itodo Samuel Anthony
Vice-Principal (Academics)”

The writer, Itodo Samuel Anthony is a recipient of the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship for his master of arts programme at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, Massachusetts, United States.

Source Scholarships & Career Hub

Posted August, 25 2020

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