Boren Letter of Recommendation Advice
Below you will find information about: (1) asking for letters, (2) letter content and (3) letter
submission (campus and official).
Requesting Letters & Letter Content
The letters of recommendation you receive for the Boren Scholarship are important. You don’t
want a letter that says little more than that you are studying X, are a good student, and would be
a wonderful representative of the US abroad. All letters will probably say as much. You want
your letters to enhance and make your application rise to the top. And you want your
recommender to be enthusiastic about you and how you are a great fit for the Scholarship and the
study abroad program itself.
When asking for a letter of recommendation for the Boren Scholarship think about who would be
best able to address the Scholarship’s purpose vis-à-vis your academic background, course of
study, career aspirations, etc.
Be sure to ask if your recommender is willing to write you a strong letter and then be sure to
explain what the Scholarship is about and why you have asked him/her to write on your behalf.
Don’t just ask for a letter, provide a resume and then register the person as one of your
recommenders. Give the recommender the necessary and relevant information that links your
studies, experiences, career aspirations and Scholarship goals and maybe even provide other
“talking points” like “In your letter, would you mind talking about the research paper I wrote for
your class about…?” Failure to tailor your request for each recommender typically results in
letters that look the same—brief discussion of course and grade received followed by a
paraphrase of the resume.
Providing relevant bits of information (e.g., research papers, courses taken, internships,
upcoming relevant plans, etc.) and how they fit together to enhance your career aspirations and
the Scholarship’s goals goes a long way.
Be sure that your recommenders understand that you are not telling them what to include in their
letters, but that you are simply providing them with relevant information that might help them
put together a strong, supportive letter as well as letting each recommender know why you are
asking him/her for a letter.
Boren: Letters of Recommendation Advice & Instructions
It also helps if you share with your recommenders drafts of your application essays, especially
the essay about your career goals and national security interests (essay 1) and a bit about how the
study abroad program will contribute to your studies (essay 2).
Submitting Letters for the Campus & Official Application
Campus: Have your recommenders submit their letters directly to Dean Goldberg via email as
WORD documents. ([email protected]). At this time their letters do not need to be on
letterhead nor signed.
At this time, do not register your recommenders on the Boren official application. Dean
Goldberg will advise you when to do so.
Official: Explain to your recommenders that they will eventually need to submit their letters
electronically to your official Boren Scholarship application. For them to do so, you will need to
register them and they will receive an email from Boren Scholarship with upload instructions.
When they submit their official letter of recommendation, the letter will need to be signed, on
letterhead and uploaded as a PDF. Their letters will be addressed to the “Boren Scholarship
Selection Committee”.
