Recommendation Letter for Graduate School Applications

If you meet the above criteria, please make your LOR request HERE. This page is accessible only via your UCSD email.  This is the first step of the whole process. No letter will be written if this step is missing. I will use the department's LOR system to manage the whole process.   The LOR system will be activated towards the end of September every year and will become inactive when the admissions season is over.  All my letters have to be administered via this system, which saves me much time every year.  I will not be able to accept a LOR request when the system is not active. 

It takes much of my time to write recommendation letters these days. Please help me write a better letter by sharing the following items on the LOR system

• Your performance in my class(es);
• Items that can refresh my memory about you, for example, any discussion we had.

You are welcome to share a brag letter (or a paragraph or two) from the third-person point of view. However, this is totally optional and not necessary, and I may not use any information you provide.  A CV is also optional.

No meeting is necessary unless instructed.

Send me an email one week before the deadline if any letter is missing.

Please note that I can only write an academic recommendation letter.  In general, I will not be able to comment on your personal traits --- such comments are often required by professional schools (i.e., business schools, public policy schools, and law schools).   Some of these schools force a letter writer to answer personal traits questions and do not give the letter writer the option to upload a recommendation letter.  I prefer not to be your recommender for those cases (and the department's LOR system can not handle those cases).  

After I agreed to write a LOR, you will receive an email from the department's LOR system that contains the following:

"Yixiao Sun agreed to write you a letter of recommendation.

DO NOT request the letter through the application portal of the schools you apply to yet.

We will let you know an email address you must use when Yixiao Sun finishes writing the letter. Then, you can request the letter submission.

The letter is going to be ready by three days before your deadline. "

Please read the above carefully. Please DO NOT provide my email address yisun at ucsd.edu or yisun at econ.ucsd.edu on your application forms. Doing so will bypass the LOR system, and your letter will not be submitted to the schools you are applying. 

Exchange or Non-UCSD Students

If you were a student in my class but you were not a UCSD student (for example, you were a visiting student from another university, or you were a student when I taught a class outside UCSD), then you need to meet all of the following criteria:

1.      You were a top five or top 5%  student in my class;

2.      You are/were ranked among the very top, say top 2%, in your home program;

3.      You are applying to Ph.D. programs; and

4.      You have given me some opportunities to know who you are.

It takes much of my time to write recommendation letters these days. Please help me write a better letter by sharing the following items about one month before the deadline.

• Your performance in my class(es);
• Your CV;
• Items that can refresh my memory about you, for example, any discussion we had.