How to ask for a recommendation letter: whom, when and what to send

First: count the letters each application needs

The number, the kind of referee and the route differ more than most applicants expect. Make one list across all your applications before you contact anyone, because one professor may end up writing for five places with five deadlines.

1. The number. Cornell says most fields require two or three letters; Fulbright Türkiye asks for three; DAAD's master's scholarship for graduates from Turkey asks for one; UCAS takes one reference.
2. Who may write them. Cornell wants faculty letters for PhD, MA and MS applicants; İTÜ requires at least one of its two letters per program to be academic.
3. The language. Fulbright Türkiye and UCAS require English (UCAS accepts Welsh for a Welsh application).
4. The route: a link the portal emails to the referee, or a form you generate and upload yourself. The table further down sorts the institutions by route.
5. The date the letter must be in. At several institutions an application without its letters is not reviewed.

Whom to ask

Someone who knows your academic work

Cornell's advice is that a recommendation letter should come from someone who knows you well academically. Faculty write most of them, but a professional who supervised your academic or research work can also fit. A famous name who taught you in a lecture of 300 can say little that your transcript does not already say.

When a work referee is accepted

Professional master's programs at Cornell accept letters from people familiar with your professional performance; for research degrees, ask your field first if you have been out of school for a while. Fulbright Türkiye prefers academics you studied or worked with and allows one of the three letters to come from an employer or internship. UCAS lets independent applicants use an employer or colleague if they have been out of education for a while, but asks for an academic-style reference, not a standard HR one.

Who cannot write it

UCAS rules out family members, friends, partners and ex-partners, and says using one may get the application cancelled. It also forbids writing your own reference. Treat both rules as the safe default everywhere.

Doctoral applicants with a prospective advisor

İTÜ asks PhD applicants for an extra letter from the advisor they plan to work with. It is not uploaded to the system; it goes straight to the interview committee.

How to ask, step by step

1. Give at least several weeks' notice, as Cornell advises, so the referee can write a full and accurate letter.
2. Ask to meet, and ask directly whether they are willing to write you a strong letter. A hesitant answer is useful information.
3. Explain your plans: why graduate study, which programs, and how you chose them.
4. If someone declines, thank them and find another referee.
5. Send the packet below in one email, with every deadline in a single list.
6. Enter their details in each portal only after they have agreed, and tell them the invitation emails are coming.
7. Check the portal before each deadline. Cornell says to check, but not to hound them.
8. Tell them the outcome. Cornell says it is considerate and they will want to know.

What to send your referee

• Your transcript and CV.
• A list of programs, deadlines and the route each one uses.
• The courses you took with them, with grades.
• Titles and short abstracts of papers or projects they supervised.
• Honours, awards and related activities.
• Drafts of your statements, so the letter supports the same story.

All six items come from Cornell's guidance on requesting letters. Keep the packet short: a referee writing for several students reads it once.

Sample request email

Illustrative, to adapt: 'Dear Dr Arslan, I am applying for MSc programs in transportation engineering at three universities for autumn 2027, and I would be grateful if you could write a recommendation letter for me. I took your Traffic Engineering course in 2025 and you supervised my senior project on signal timing at four junctions in Konya. The earliest deadline is 15 December; the portals will email you a link once you agree. Attached are my transcript, CV, the deadline list and my draft statement of purpose. Could we meet for fifteen minutes next week to talk it through? Thank you for considering it.'

How letters reach each institution

The routes fall into two kinds: the referee gets a link and uploads the letter, or you collect the letter and upload it. Know which one you face before you ask, because it changes what you tell your referee.

Fulbright's note on email addresses

Fulbright Türkiye's page recommends that the email address you enter for a referee is not a university address. It gives no reason; follow it, and ask your referee which personal address they will watch.

Waiving your right to see the letter in the US

US portals ask whether you waive your right to read each letter. The right comes from FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, and Cornell explains it on its recommendations page: if you enrol, you may review letters submitted for you, unless you tick "waive access" below each recommender's address before sending the request.

What the regulation says

• A college does not have to show you confidential letters of recommendation for admission, employment or an honour if you waived your right to see them (34 CFR 99.12).
• The waiver is valid only if the institution does not require it as a condition of admission, and only if it is in writing and signed by you.
• After a waiver, the institution must give you the names of the people who wrote your letters if you ask, and use the letters only for their intended purpose.
• You can revoke a waiver in writing, but only for what happens after the revocation.

Should you waive?

It is your choice; Berkeley calls it voluntary. Cornell gives the reason applicants usually do waive: it tells recommenders you will not read their letters and tells the committee the support is candid. If you would hesitate to waive for a given referee, that is a reason to ask someone else, not to keep access.

In the UK the rule runs the other way

UCAS tells school applicants they will not have access to the reference their school adds. Separately, it tells referees that under the Data Protection Act an applicant can ask for a copy of the reference and other personal information UCAS holds. There is no waiver box to tick.

Where this page stops

• A job reference list, with contact details an employer will phone, is a different document; the reference list guide covers it.
• Writing the statements your referee will read is covered in the guide to the statement of purpose and the personal statement.
• Scholarship motivation letters are in the motivation letter guide.
• Deadlines and counts above were read on 13 October 2026 and change each cycle; check each program's page before you ask.

Next steps

• Build the deadline list today and send your first request this week.
• Put a reminder two weeks and three days before each deadline to check the portal.
• Send your referee a CV whose dates, courses and projects match your transcript. CitedCV can write that CV in English, Turkish or German from the facts you give it; it does not write recommendation letters.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Cornell Graduate School: Request recommendationsgradschool.cornell.edu/admissions/prepare/recommendations/
2. Cornell Graduate School: Requesting letters of recommendationgradschool.cornell.edu/inclusion/recruitment/prospective-students/requesting-letters-of-recommendation/
3. UC Berkeley Graduate Division: Application requirementsgrad.berkeley.edu/admissions/steps-to-apply/requirements/
4. eCFR: 34 CFR 99.12, limits on the right to inspect records (FERPA)www.ecfr.gov/current/title-34/subtitle-A/part-99/subpart-B/section-99.12
5. UCAS: How to get a UCAS referencewww.ucas.com/applying/applying-university/how-get-ucas-reference
6. UCAS: Writing undergraduate references for independent applicantswww.ucas.com/advisers/help-and-training/guides-resources-and-training/writing-references/writing-undergraduate-references-for-independent-applicants
7. DAAD: Study Scholarships for graduates from Turkeywww2.daad.de/deutschland/stipendium/datenbank/en/21148-scholarship-database/?status=3&origin=14&detail=50026200
8. Fulbright Türkiye: Master's scholarshipfulbright.org.tr/burs/3/Y%C3%BCksek-Lisans-Bursu
9. İTÜ: 2026-2027 autumn graduate applicationswww.sis.itu.edu.tr/duyuru_ekler/lisansustu/202710/lu-basvurular/tc-vatandasi.php
10. METU: Graduate application information sheetiso.metu.edu.tr/en/system/files/grad-handout-eng.pdf