Questions for Letters-of-Recommendation
Dear Referee,
thank you very much for writing a letter of recommendation for an applicant to the Bonn International Graduate School of Mathematics. It is very important to receive a candid judgement about an applicant from an experienced mathematician. The more concrete information your letter contains the more helpful it is for our selection process.
We kindly ask you address the following questions in your letter.
1) For how long or since when and in which capacity have you known the applicant?
2) How large were the comparison groups of students in which you can rank the applicant?
3) Can you rank the applicant as belonging to the top 5, 10 or 20% of his comparison group?
4) Please assess the applicants
- intellectual and analytic strength,
- mathematical knowledge, in particular in her/his field of interest,
- technical skills in mathematics,
- capability to develop and follow own ideas,
- ambition and initiative,
- stamina and independence.
5) Please describe the applicants general attitude towards academic work, his/her reliability and ability to work in a group with other students.
6) If possible, please assess the applicant’s proficiency in English.
Thank you very much for your attention!
Please, either give your letter in a sealed envelope to the applicant, or send it by post or by e-mail directly to:
Director of Graduate Studies
Bonn International Graduate School in Mathematics
Endenicher Allee 62
D-53115 Bonn, Germany
or
bigs@math.uni-bonn.de