How many letters of recommendation are required for my application packet?
There is no required number. Most successful applicants submit two or three. Your letters ought to tell the “story of you.” What makes you as a person qualified to be a teacher, mentor, and leader of cadets and fellow faculty members? This will include evidence of your military performance, academic ability to succeed in graduate studies, practical experience related to the Department’s disciplines, ability to think through complex problems and speak and write about them clearly, and your character, initiative, and energy. When selecting authors for your letters, it is better to ask a person who can speak from personal knowledge of you and your work than to ask someone who does not really know you, but whose name or position seems impressive. Don’t hesitate to provide your writers with guidance on the subject areas you’d like them to cover or facts about things they have observed about you in the past.
