Information Needed for Recommendation Letters

If you (a student) need a recommendation letter from Prof. Riehle, read this document in its entirety. A starting requirement is that we actually know you in person (includes online). We do not provide recommendation letters solely based on participation in our courses.

If you decide to continue, please follow these steps:

  • Create a first draft of the letter yourself, with the intended audience in mind. Only you know what the recipient of the recommendation letter is looking for.
  • Do so only in plain text and provide the content to us in a simple text file, or ODT/DOC if necessary. No LaTeX please. Don’t try to imitiate any letter head.

The administrative language of our group is English, so we are unable to provide support for non-English materials that you might submit.

As to the information we need from you. Your draft letter content should cover the following:

  • Your full name, date of birth, and immatriculation number
  • A short summary of how Prof. Riehle met you in class/what classes you took
  • A (possibly longer) summary of your final thesis that you did with us, if so
    • This should cover the content of work as well as responsibilities associated with it
    • Please note anything out of the ordinary like particular challenges you faced
  • A (possibly longer) summary of work you did as part of a student job with us, if any
    • This should cover the content of work as well as responsibilities associated with it
    • Please note anything out of the ordinary like particular challenges you faced
  • Your self-assessment as to strengths and weaknesses targeting your recipient

Please use the language of the recipient. Also provide all necessary meta-information:

  • Why do you need a recommendation letter from us?
  • Do you need the letter back from us? Signed and sealed?
  • Should we send it directly to the recipient?
  • Anything else that helps us process the recommendation letter.

Please send this information to recommendation-letters@group.riehle.org. In your email, please use English and let us know if there is any urgency or deadline for finishing the recommendation letter.

If it is not a frivolous request (i.e. we don’t know you), we will then create the requested recommendation letter for you. You should be able to pick up your copies (if needed) after about two weeks.