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Letters of recommendation for graduate schools in the U.S.

Last year, a former student of ours, who is currently studying physics at an American university, asked us to write a Letter of Recommendation for a graduate school of his choice.

He had attended an international elementary school in Kisarazu after spending his childhood in a foreign country, and was confused by the environment in which he was taught in English at school but in Japanese at cram school. He was confused and had trouble keeping up with the classes. His parents, who were distressed, heard about our school and came to us for consultation.

At the time, the school was using American textbooks, but this kind of problem occurs not only because of the language, but also because the way classes are taught and the way problems are tackled are different from those in Japan. Here, I taught math, science, and English using basic English. He was particularly interested in science at the time, and we would often mix English and Japanese during recess to talk about the science subjects he was interested in.

I tutored him through the third grade of junior high school, and he was able to understand mathematics well, which he had initially struggled with. In high school, his interest in physics finally deepened, and he was accepted to an American university as a physics major. He wanted to go on to graduate school in physics, so I gladly accepted his request for a letter of recommendation.

A letter of recommendation in English, however, is something I have only written once when an acquaintance of mine applied for a job while living in Canada, but this is the first time for me to write such a formal one. I wrote a lot of rhetoric, mixed in old stories, and told him how he would be a good candidate for the graduate school he wanted to apply to. In the meantime, he received a series of emails from several graduate schools to which he had applied. All of them were in a similar format, with a form linked to the email. First, questions about my work. Then I was asked to rate him on a scale of 5-6 based on how long I have known him and various questions about his qualifications, and finally to attach a letter of recommendation.

Here is an email from the MIT graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dear Hiroji Ihara,

[Applicant's name] has requested a letter of recommendation to support their application for admission to the

Please submit your letter of recommendation here .

Let us know if you have any questions.

MIT Graduate Admissions
gradadmissions@mit.eduPlease mention [Vivinavi]


Send your letter of recommendation as an attachment and you will receive an email confirming receipt.

Princeton Graduate School sent the following receipt confirmation email.

Dear Mr. Ihara,

We have successfully received your letter of recommendation for [applicant's name] to the Graduate School at

Thank you for your time and consideration.Sincerely,
Graduate Admission
Princeton University
Clio Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544

There are other students from our department studying at American universities, but he is the first one to go to graduate school. Thanks to him, I have gained valuable experience as well.
I wish him luck in getting into the graduate school of his choice.