Recommendation Letters

Sometimes students need recommendation letters to apply for a scholarship or a degree at another university. If you have successfully completed a lecture or a course with me, I can provide such a letter. Here is what you need to know:


  • I need a couple of weeks notice in advance. So please ask me early enough.
  • Typically I do not get to know students very well in big lectures. In such cases, I tend to write a reasonably generic, friendly letter in which I discuss your past achievements based on your transcript of records and your CV.
  • I will never hand over a recommendation letter to yourself, I will only agree to either upload it online to some application portal, or to send it by email or post to the institution who wants to have that letter. There is a good reason for this. If you apply with a recommendation letter that you have read before, people will not take it seriously: it is completely obvious that under those circumstances, I cannot write an honest letter that would also mention some weaknesses. So any letter that could have gotten filtered by yourself is completely useless as a recommendation letter.

If you need a recommendation letter, please send me an email with all the following information:

  • Your name, current study program (subject, and which degree, which semester), matriculation number.
  • Which of my lectures and/or seminars did you attend, when, and with which result?
  • Which programm do you apply for, how and where can I submit the reference letter, and what is the deadline?
  • Your CV and all your transcripts of records.