Letters for math (or related to math) REU, for math research students

My contact information (for filling out forms)

• Name: Emily Gunawan
• Current position: Postdoctoral Associate
• Current affiliation: Department of Mathematics, University of Oklahoma
• Email: egunawan at ou
• Mailing address: 601 Elm Avenue, Room 423 Norman, OK 73019-3103
• Phone number: (405) 325-6711

Information about where to submit

• The type/s of the program, so that I can write ‘I recommend [student] for [your math REU program/your research internship/etc]’
• A complete list of deadlines and places that will request a letter from me (for example, mathprograms.org). If you are applying for multiple programs using the same platform, write the earliest deadline.
• Any forms that need to be filled out, if any (fill out your name and as many fields as you can). My information is above.

Multiple recommendations

• If you are applying to multiple programs with multiple deadlines, please get all of your information together prior to the first deadline, so that the letter writer can upload all recommendation letters in one sitting.

• Click the web buttons to generate those automatic emails to the recommender all within a few days, so that the letter writer receives all the recommendation requests within a few days. Once you are finished with all applications, you can send each letter writer an email saying “I have finished applying to all programs. You should have received 5 automatically generated recommendation requests from Platforms/Programs A, B, C, D, E. Please let me know if you didn’t receive any of these.”

To help me write an effective letter, please send me some of the following.

1. Briefly describe your research contribution during the REU. Describe the research, and talk about what you proved, either yourself or with other students.

2. Optional: Tentative interests and goals
   • Your tentative goals, why you are applying to the programs, and how the programs fit into your goals. (These should match with your essay, since people will read your essay and my letter at the same time.)
   • If you are only applying to specific types of programs (for example, only to math biology REU), let me know so that I can mention this in the letter. If you are applying to various types of programs, I will talk about your general enthusiasm to math (or your related field).
3. Optional: Preparation
   • Write down some of your best skills relevant to the programs. Give specific examples that demonstrate that you have these qualities: During my (job/course/REU/volunteering), I learned ... (collaboration/communication/listening/coding/presentation skills, proof-writing skills, writing a paper for publication, etc). For example ....
   • If there is anything good you want the program to know about you but there isn’t enough space in the essay (or if it’s better if a professor writes it for you) please tell me.
4. Optional: Documents that may be helpful (if the documents are not ready yet, don’t worry about sending them)
   • draft of personal statement/ statement of purpose and other writing you plan to submit to the application.
   • CV

Reminders:

• Please put the date of the earliest deadline on the email subject line of our correspondence about this recommendation letter.
• If the deadline is one week away and you don’t think I have submitted the recommendations yet, please send me a reminder, ideally in the same email thread so that all relevant attachments and information remain together.

Good luck with your applications!