Letters of Recommendation

General Information

• Three references are required; five are allowed.
• Locate and contact your recommenders at least a month in advance of the initial submission deadline to find out if they are willing to provide an electronic reference and to allow adequate time for them to respond.
• As soon as you enter their contact information electronically, recommenders will receive an email request.
• Types of references:
  • One (preferably two) reference(s) from a professor or equivalent academic source who knows your work well.
  • One (or more) letter(s) that speaks to your research potential is especially helpful.
  • Letters from recommenders holding a doctorate (or a non-us equivalent) carry much more weight than letters without such credentials. A letter from a public health professional with a masters degree might serve as a fourth reference.
  • Letters from professors or supervisors in fields unrelated to public health, health sciences, mathematics or quantitative social sciences carry significantly less weight.
  • Letters from colleagues, as opposed to supervisors, carry very little weight.
  • Do not send letters from relatives, non-professional sources, and other students.
• Recommenders should address in detail the accomplishments, training and experience that qualify you for a degree and career in epidemiology and public health. Clinical residency or fellowship references are inadequate.
• A UW postdoc fellow must provide a reference from his/her fellowship director and research or lab mentor certifying that the applicant will be allowed release time to attend class on a regular basis. This requires flexible clinic/lab schedules because core course times vary depending on the quarter. The first year requires class attendance 5 days/week.
• Late references may prevent consideration of your application or reduce your admission chances. It is the applicant’s responsibility to make sure references are submitted by the final deadline.
• The Deadline for receiving the references is Dec. 15. Note that the application submission deadline is two weeks earlier.
• Send your recommenders an email warning them that they will receive an email request to submit an online reference (much preferred to paper) so they can make sure that the request is not discarded as spam. A recommender may type in plain text, paste a letter written in unformatted plain text (e.g. from Notepad), or upload a MS-Word letter or PDF. Also, send your recommmenders these last 6 bullets, the final deadline, a scanned copy of your transcripts, and your electronic resume or CV.
• Alert your recommenders that they will receive an email requesting a reference from epiapply@uw.edu. Please let the recommender know that he or she must click on the link in the email and follow the instructions carefully.
• You are allowed to change a reference from email to postal mail, if requested by the recommender, by deleting the recommender and re-adding him/her with the correct delivery method.
• If you request a reference by postal mail, provide your recommender with the Epidemiology mailing and express courrier addresses.

UW Direct Application, or Application Proceedures

This page was last updated on October 17, 2011