LOR for a Student You Barely Know: What to Write
Asked for a grad school LOR by a student you taught once? State the limit in paragraph one, compare them with your class, and know when to say no.
LOR for a Student You Barely Know: What to Write
Write only what your gradebook and your own contact with the student support, say where your knowledge stops in the first paragraph, and compare the student with the class you actually taught. The forms ask for exactly that: Cambridge wants your role "and how long that was for", and Sydney asks "In what capacity, how well, and for how long, have you known the applicant?" If you cannot name one thing the student did, decline: Cambridge warns that "a very short reference may disadvantage the student".
The tempting mistake is to cover a thin acquaintance with big adjectives. The forms ask for your basis before anything else, so a letter that claims more than you saw loses the credit it could have had. An honest limited letter with one real detail is worth sending. This page is for the recommender; the student's side is at the end.
Every university page quoted below was checked on October 31, 2026. None of them states a cycle year.
Should you write it?
Run three questions. You need a yes to all three.
If the short contact was a research internship rather than a course, see the guide to a letter from a summer research supervisor.
- Can I name one piece of the student's work I read or watched myself? An exam answer, a project, a question in office hours.
- Can I place them in a group I can count? "Third of 214 students in my Econometrics course, 2025" is a group. "Among my best students" is not.
- Can I endorse them without hedging? If your honest answer is "probably fine", you are not the right writer.
Stanford asks for writers "who know you well and are qualified to evaluate your potential for graduate study." If you fail question 1 or 3, decline early and kindly; the guide on how to decline writing a recommendation letter has the emails.
Our view: a top grade in a large class, plus one piece of work you remember, is enough for a short honest letter. The countercase: for a program that wants research letters, such as Toronto CS ("At least two letters should speak to your ability to conduct independent research at the graduate level"), a course-only letter can fill the third slot but not one of the two research letters. Tell the student that, so they can plan the other two.
Stating the relationship honestly
| Form | What it asks about the relationship |
|---|---|
| Cambridge (guidance for academic referees) | "your name, your role and institution when you knew the applicant directly, and how long that was for"; the "size of the group against which you are comparing the student"; "If you're unable to rate the student, you're given an opportunity to explain why." |
| Sydney research degrees (referee form, version "vMay16") | "In what capacity, how well, and for how long, have you known the applicant?"; ratings include "Unable to judge" |
| Stanford (recommendations) | The comparison group, "How many years have you evaluated people in this group?", "Approximately how many people are in this group, totaled over those years?"; options include "No basis for judgment" |
| York (reference guidance, PDF) | The reference should "state your name, your role and in what capacity and for how long you have known the applicant" |
All four forms put the limit of your knowledge on the page whether you write it or not. So write it yourself, in your words, in the first paragraph. Where a form offers "Unable to judge" or "No basis for judgment" for a quality you never saw, use it; no basis for judgment ratings explains when.
Building evidence from little contact
You have more than you think, and less than you might be tempted to claim.
For a full constructed letter with a rank and its cohort, see the sample letter from a Chinese professor.
| Source you have | What it can support | What it cannot |
|---|---|---|
| The gradebook | A rank in a counted class ("third of 214") | Motivation, character, research skill |
| One assignment or exam answer you remember | One incident: what they did that others did not | A pattern across years |
| Office hours or emails | The quality of their questions | Independence on a project you did not supervise |
| The student's own list of facts | Dates, course codes, marks, programs, to check your memory | Anything you did not see yourself |
Ask the student for that list of facts. Do not ask for a draft. Stanford: "Your recommenders must be the sole authors of your letters of recommendation." The student's version of the request is in how to ask for a grad school letter of recommendation.
Constructed opening: the inflated version and the honest version
Constructed example, written by us, not a real recommendation letter. Context (invented): Dr. L. Okafor taught Mei Tanaka in a 214-student econometrics course and met her twice in office hours; Mei is applying to MS programs in economics.
The inflated opening:
It is my great pleasure to recommend Mei Tanaka, one of the most brilliant and dedicated students I have encountered. Mei has a deep passion for economics and outstanding research potential, and she would be an asset to any program.
The honest opening:
I taught Mei Tanaka in Econometrics I in spring 2025, a course of 214 students, and met her twice in office hours. I did not supervise her research, so this letter is about her work in my course. She finished third of the 214. What I remember is her term paper: she noticed that our textbook dataset dropped every firm that closed during the sample, explained why that biased the estimate upward, and re-ran the model with the closures included. No other student that term raised it.
The inflated version is 40 words and claims research potential the writer never saw. The honest version is 87 words and contains a rank, a group, a date and one incident. It is shorter on praise and longer on evidence, which is what the graduate recommendation letter rubric reads for: a basis for judgment, an incident, and a comparison that names its group.
Two students, same program
A related case: two students from the same class ask you for letters to the same program.
Our recommendation:
- Use different evidence. Each letter gets its own incident. If you cannot find a distinct one for each, you do not know one of them well enough.
- Keep the numbers consistent. If one is third of 214 and the other is twentieth of 214, say so in both letters and on both rating grids. Stanford's grid asks for the group size each time, so a reader with both files can compare your answers.
- Do not rank them against each other unless asked. The form asks where each student sits in your group, not which of the two you prefer.
- Write each letter for the course it targets. Cambridge asks for "a separate reference for each course".
The countercase: if both students did the same group project and you only saw the joint output, say so in both letters rather than splitting credit you cannot verify.
Questions about letters for students you barely know
Can I write a recommendation letter for a student I only taught once?
Yes, if you can name one piece of their work and a rank in a counted group. State the limit in the first paragraph. If you cannot, decline early.
How long should the letter be?
Long enough for the basis, one incident and a comparison. Cambridge says "A reference of 500 to 1,000 words is most effective" and that a very short reference "may disadvantage the student". York asks for "between 350 to 1,000 words". For other limits, see how long a letter of recommendation should be.
Should I tell the student I don't know them well?
Yes, before you agree. It lets them choose a stronger writer and keeps your letter honest.
I am the student, and my professor doesn't know me well. Should I still ask?
Ask only if they can name your work and your rank. Give them a list of facts, not a draft. If someone else saw more of your work, ask them first; the LOR format and sample guide shows what a strong letter contains. A different problem is a student you know well but whose grades are weak: see the LOR for a student with low grades.
Get a free review of the letter
Get a free Quick Review of your recommendation letter against GradPilot's graduate school recommendation letter rubric. It reads how you know the candidate, incidents instead of adjectives, comparisons that name their group, and the strength of your endorsement. Writing for a UK or European program? Use the international academic recommendation letter rubric.
The full method is in how to write a letter of recommendation for a student. More guides are in the graduate school essays hub.
Sources
Retrieved October 31, 2026.
- University of Cambridge, Guidance for academic referees (no cycle stated): role and duration; comparison-group size; explaining an inability to rate; 500 to 1,000 words; very short references.
- University of Cambridge, References (no cycle stated): separate reference for each course.
- University of Sydney, Postgraduate Research Referee Form (form version vMay16): capacity, how well, how long; "Unable to judge".
- Stanford Graduate Admissions, Recommendations (no cycle stated): "know you well"; comparison-group questions; "No basis for judgment"; sole-author rule.
- University of York, Postgraduate Admissions: Academic and Professional References (PDF) (undated): capacity and duration; 350 to 1,000 words.
- University of Toronto, Department of Computer Science, How to apply (Fall 2027 applications): two letters on research ability.
Does your letter show what you observed?
Recommenders: check your letter for firsthand examples, fair comparisons and a clear endorsement.