Letters of Recommendation

This page describes the process for UMTYMP students to request a letter of recommendation. Each year we send out hundreds of letters to colleges, scholarship programs, summer institutes, and other programs. We appreciate your help in streamlining the process by following the guidelines below.

Parents sometimes help coordinate the process for young students, e.g. a sixth grader who needs a recommendation to apply to a summer program. Even with older students, parents who also work on campus might help out by dropping envelopes or other materials off at our office. For letters of recommendation for students in UMTYMP Calculus 1-3, however, all requests and communication should come from the student, and not the parent.

Particularly for students of the UMTYMP Calculus component, letters from MathCEP/UMTYMP are generally written by Professor Rogness, the director of the program. This provides a level of consistency and can also make for a much more compelling letter. Many of our instructors work with UMTYMP for two or three years before moving on to another position, whereas Professor Rogness has been teaching mathematics at the University since 1999, and can put a student's performance in UMTYMP into a broader context. Most students have had two semesters worth of classes (or more) with Professor Rogness by the time they request a recommendation, and before writing a letter he will gather information from any other past or current instructors.

To request a letter of recommendation, you should please fill out this form, which contains information about the process, a release form, and a questionnaire. We ask that you fill out the form and send any other required information to mathcep@umn.edu at least two weeks before your first letter is due. If you can email everything in even earlier, so much the better!

If you have any questions about the process while filling out the form, please email mathcep@umn.edu for clarification before you submit the form.Our letters of recommendation will be sent directly to schools or online application systems (the Common Application server, MIT's form, and so on).  UMTYMP faculty will not share letters of recommendation with school counselors, consultants, or other third-parties. If you're using such a service, or if your school submits applications using Naviance, plan ahead. In the past, some schools have added Prof. Rogness as a recommend in their Naviance system, but we're unable to use that method now.

Scholarships and summer programs will generally ask you to enter Prof. Rogness' email address as a recommender, or provide you with an email address where we should send your letter.  The process for submitting letters as part of college application can be a bit more involved; see the information to the right (or below, depending on your browser.)

    Please follow these guidelines:

    • If you add Prof. Rogness in any system as a recommender, please use the email address rogness@umn.edu.
    • Please fill out as much information as you can on the forms which should accompany the letter. For the two most frequent forms (MIT and the Common Application), that includes the following. (Note that if a form asks for a "High School" or "Secondary School" you can strike through the word "High" or "Secondary" just to emphasize that this letter comes from a university.)
    Name: Dr. Jonathan Rogness
    Position: Associate Professor, Mathematics
    School: University of Minnesota
    Address: Vincent Hall 4, 206 Church St SE
    Minneapolis, MN 55455
    Phone: 612-625-2861
    Email: rogness@umn.edu
    Subject Taught: College Mathematics
    Teacher since: 1999