Can an Academic LOR be used for job purposes?

If you have no professional experience and your organisation requires you to give references, then you can use an academic reference for job purposes. The letter should be able to justify your passion for learning and growth. While your desire to grow professionally cannot be discussed in this LOR directly, your will to learn can be discussed with the help of the unique traits that you show with the help of the initiatives you take, such as leading a project or presenting skills.

How is an Academic LOR different from a Professional LOR?

While the length and structure of both the LORs are the same, the major difference between an academic and professional LOR lies in the content discussed inside the letters. An academic LOR is written by a faculty member who discusses your academic rigour and drive to learn. A professional LOR talks about your personal and professional strengths that define your character. Both serve the same purpose of informing the admission committee of your ability to succeed in a challenging environment.

Can I write my own Academic LOR?

Given that you get your academic LOR checked and signed by the faculty member who writes your letter, you draft this letter on your own. Their position in the school or college must be clear, and their official contact details must be appropriate. Lastly, they must agree with what you write in this letter about your academic profile or projects.

How long should an Academic LOR be?

The standard word count of an academic LOR is 380-400 words. It is a one-page-long document discussing your relationship with the recommender and your academic potential, supported with projects completed under the tutelage of the recommender. The faculty member to write your LOR can be a tutor, professor, direct project manager, HOD, etc.

Do universities require an Academic LOR for MBA or PhD applications?

Yes, international universities require an academic LOR even for advanced courses like MBA or PhD, given that the study gap is not huge (a gap greater than 5-7 years in your chosen MBA/PhD and previous educational qualification can be considered huge). Both academic and professional LORs play a vital role in the admissions decision for universities abroad, so make sure to provide both unless otherwise stated by a university.

LOR from Professor: Sample, Format, Template, Guidelines

An Academic LOR is a reference letter or a letter of recommendation written by a tutor from one of your most relevant educational institutions, where the tutor talks about your academic strengths and achievements. In this letter, the recommender discloses their association with you and discusses their observations on your contribution to certain academic projects and highlights your academic rigour.

The recommender aims at discussing your intellectual depth, critical thinking, and theoretical understanding of a specific field of study. An Academic LOR also emphasises your research skills and complex problem-solving abilities for a broader understanding of knowledge in the chosen field of study.

Some universities may refer to this letter as an LOR from Faculty, or LOR from Professor, or an LOR from Teacher, in rare cases. This reference letter needs to come from one of your tutors or direct project guides from your latest educational institution.

Let us see all you need from understanding the format and template of an Academic LOR to writing tips and proven guidelines for the document. We will learn to write an Academic LOR with examples from a sample.

How to Write an Academic LOR from Faculty?

This letter needs to come from a faculty member from your latest school or academic institution. It must be written with you as the point of reference by a tutor as an observer. It means that it should sound as written by the recommender for the student, but by a monitoring teacher. Unlike a Statement of Purpose (SOP), where students write on their own, the storyteller of this document is the faculty member, not the student. To write an Academic LOR, follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Identify the projects or events you plan to discuss in the letter.

Step 2: Outline the project details and your role and contribution, along with your learnings and strengths that you depicted.

Step 3: Recall your direct project supervisor or guide in the academic setting. Reach out to the faculty member and discuss your ideas for the letter.

Step 4: Ensure that the timelines of your association and the discussed projects are accurate.

Step 5: Request your recommender to write the letter for you with all the project details, such as title, timeline, objectives, outcomes, and your strengths and learnings.

Step 6: Go through the document and get the final draft attested by the faculty member, along with their contact details. Attach to your university application.

Academic LOR from Faculty Format & Template

An Academic LOR from faculty or professor must have the following six components, just as the Professional LOR from Employer:

Introduction: Establish the relationship between recommender and applicant as student and teacher. Add the time of their official association.
Technical Skillset: Start with the technical skillset of the candidate. It must be directly related to their chosen field of study. Example: Coding in Python for an aspirant of MS in Computer Science.
Social Skillset I: Discuss the first social skill of a student, such as communication, presentation, leadership skills, etc.
Social Skillset II: Another social skill needs to be discussed here with another example of a project or social event.
Conclusion: Show your confidence in the student’s success as their tutor, wish them the best for the future, and thank the admission committee for their time.
Recommender’s Contact Details: Add the full name and direct official contact information of the recommender after discussing with them.

Note: Make sure to support each skill with the help of an example of a project on which the recommender witnessed the candidate working and showing the said traits.

Academic LOR from Faculty Guidelines & Common Mistakes

Let us dive into the guidelines of an Academic LOR from school and common mistakes to avoid.

Academic LOR from Faculty Guidelines

You may share these guidelines to write an Academic LOR with your professor, recommending you:

The ideal word count is 380-400 words. Ensure that it fits within one A4-sized page.
Use font size 12 and Times New Roman font style for consistency.
Ensure that your LOR is concise and well-structured with all the required details.

Common Mistakes in Academic LOR from Faculty

If you plan to write your Academic LOR yourself and get it checked and edited by your professor later on, ensure that you avoid these common mistakes in your Academic LOR:

Exceeding Word Limit: Do not exceed the word count of 400 words. Do not go beyond an A4-sized page under any circumstances.
Writing in First Person: In no way should your LOR sound as if written by you and not your teacher.
Sounding Too Smitten: The language must be absolutely professional and should not sound like your teacher is praising you too much or is awestruck by you.
Incomplete Information: All events discussed must be supported with proper detail, including what, where, and when.
Wrong Recommender: It should only discuss the projects or events that were directly observed by the recommender. Example: An LOR written for your Mathematics skills must come from your Maths tutor. It cannot be written by the professor of any other subject.

Sample Academic LOR from Professor

Check out the sample Academic LOR from Professor from an old student who got admitted to a reputed US institution:

“Letter of Recommendation

To whom it may concern,
In my capacity as an Associate Professor in the Department of Film and TV Production at the ABC Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi, I have known <Student Name> as a student of the Bachelor of Mass Communication from 2020-2023. During this time, he showed tremendous interest in film and TV production as a specialised subject of the mainstream degree in communication.

As part of the TV production projects, <Student Name> often stepped in for camera handling. He also had great insights into dealing with the lighting to give more exposure to the subjects. It was particularly evident during the on-camera editing project in his fifth semester, where he worked on the short film titled ‘POV: You are under surveillance?’.

In his advertisement shooting project of ‘I-liner’ during his sixth semester, <Student Name> showed tremendous interest in applying the knowledge of all three stages of production, including the pre-production stages of script writing and floor planning, to the post-production stage of video editing and marketing. He insisted on learning the basics of all these aspects to understand the core intent of the advertising project.

During another documentary project on ‘Student Shopping in Delhi’ shot for the final assessment upon course completion, <Student Name> depicted his excellent communication and barter skills by seeking shooting permissions from authorities in the popular Delhi market and convincing local shopkeepers and shoppers to interview for the documentary.

I can proudly say that <Student Name> has what it takes to succeed in your renowned master’s programme that specifically meets his areas of interest in production. I highly recommend him for the graduate programme at your esteemed university and wish that he graduates with flying colours.

Thank you,
<Full Name of the Recommender>
Designation: Associate Professor, Department of Film and TV Production
Institution: ABC Institute of Media Studies, Delhi
Contact: +91-XXXXXXXX, [email protected]”

Caution: This sample Academic LOR from Professor is for reference purposes only. Please do not use any samples from the internet, including this one, to draft your Academic LOR.

As you see, this sample covers all the details from the recommender’s relationship with the student to all details of every project that the candidate worked on under the tutelage of the professor. These include properly addressing the project titles, their time of occurrence, and the student’s learning and strengths in each project.

You may also see that the length of this sample Academic LOR from Faculty is between 300-350 words. It is important to note that while the ideal length of an Academic LOR is 380-400 words, you do not need to forcefully stretch up to 380 words if all your messages are conveyed appropriately and projects are described thoroughly.

Now that you have gone through the essential guidelines, common mistakes to avoid, template, format, sample, and effective writing tips for the Academic LOR, do you want to give it a try? If it all seems too overwhelming, you can reach out to our experts and get your Academic LOR from faculty drafted by our team of professional admission editors. Register at AECC Global and get your guidance call today.

Academic LOR: Sample, Format, Tips & Guidelines