Sample Letter of Reference for Biology
Letter of Recommendation for MIPT Alumnus (01/2003)
The Biology Student admitted to Harvard University
Dr. Petr P. Petrov,
Professor of Physics,
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology,
More Titles
Institutsky Per. 9,
MIPT Dolgoprudny, 141700, Russia
Tel. (Fax) 7-095-111-1111
LETTER of RECOMMENDATION
for Ivan Ivanov
November 16, 2002
Being the Leader of the Russian IPhO Team, I have known Ivan Ivanov
since xxx, when he was studying in high school. In xxx he was a
winner of the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) in City,
Country, and was awarded silver medal there. Also Ivan was a winner
of All-Ukrainian PhOs, Young Physicists Tournaments during
1994-1997.
His first year of undergraduate studies Ivan spent in the XX
Department of XX National University. Next year he continued his
study at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT). I was
not surprised when Ivan was admitted to our institute as a second
year transfer student. It is necessary to notice that no more than
five students are admitted in such a way per year. For that they
have to pass thorough examinations and show substantial
irreproachable knowledge of physics and mathematics, as well as high
clarity of thoughts.
Studying at the Institute is very hard but Ivan became one of the
top students here. This judgment is supplied by the fact that Ivan
was a winner of MIPT Undergraduate students Physics Olympiad (2nd
position in xxx), successfully participated in All-Russian students
Theoretical Mechanics Olympiad. He has got only the highest grades
on all subjects, thus his GPA is 4.0 so far. For such excellence in
studies and research work Ivan was selected two times as a Soros
Student.
Every year a small group of students and MIPT professors conduct
winter and summer sessions of the Russian IPhO Team. The aim of the
sessions is to select and to train the team of 5 high school
students. For this reason we turn to students of MIPT, generally
former participants of IPhOs, who proved themselves to be excellent
students. They invent problems to solve, give seminars, laboratory
classes and examine high school students’ knowledge of physics. Ivan
Ivanov belongs to this small group of students. I have to mention
that Ivan started his teaching practice as early as while studying
at XX University. He conducted sessions, training high school
students for All-Ukrainian and International PhOs. So when he joined
our group he started work at full capacity. He demonstrated
brilliant mental abilities and experimental skills, so we decided to
try Ivan as a member of the Board of the Final Stage of Russian PhO
in xxx. I was impressed by his performance, so I invited him in xxx
as well. I have no doubts that this activity gave him an excellent
teaching practice.
Working at MIPT for many years I can compare Ivan’s abilities with
those of other MIPT students. For the last 8 years I have known
several students like Ivan quite well. For example XX, XX and XX
(all of them are graduate students at Harvard now), XX, XX and XX
(they are graduate students at MIT), XX (University of California at
Berkeley). I am sure that all of them (including Ivan Ivanov) belong
to the top 2% of MIPT students. Those listed above are, of course,
very different and every one of them is unordinary person in his own
way. Still they have one feature in common, namely, it is their
independent, maybe sometimes erratic, way of study. Due to this
feature their knowledge of physics is often far greater than
required. For example, XX, XX and XX were offered graduate admission
by several U.S. Universities while being in their second year of
studies at MIPT.
Ivan has a strong and motivated desire to be a scientist. He is
diligent, bright-minded and trust-worthy in every way.
I highly recommend Ivan Ivanov for further education at your
department.
Sincerely Yours,
Petr Petrov
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