“真正打动我的是优异的成绩”;
“我趋向于选择那些试图有所创新的学生”;
“我期待那些有能力自己提出构想并为此工作的学生”;
除了学习成绩和外语水平以外，推荐信是国外学校了解学生的重要依据之一，在研究生课程中尤其如此。国外高等院校不仅注意申请人的考试成绩，也很注意申请人在学习和专业工作中反映出来的多方面的特点，这在很大程度上要依赖于推荐信。
推荐信要尽量避免使用那些对人人都适用的评语，而应力求反映一个学生的特点。例如，在专业领域中遇到难题时的意志和动力、创新精神和求知欲、对新事物的反应能力、对陌生事物或环境的适应能力、人际沟通与处理人际关系的能力、领导才能、事业心与责任感、课堂讲授还或科研工作中表现出来的特长或弱点，等等。
★学生当然只可能具备其中某一些优点。
★应举例说明，如曾经获得的奖励、发表过的论文、参加过的重要学术会议，以及在学生组织或教学组织中的任职，等等。
在推荐信中要注意的其它事项是：
★★推荐人应该对学生的.学习或专业工作情况比较熟悉;
★★实事求是，既要不夸张其辞，也不要低估学生的能力;
★★不要用套话，但介绍学生的情况要具体、详细，不要写得过于简单;
★★学生在教学活动以外的其它表现和成就，可以作简略的介绍，这也可以从一个侧面反映学生的特点。
您永远不可能有第二次机会给人留下第一印象。您的申请材料就是院校对您产生的“第一印象”，它将提供证明您值得录取的机会，并表明您已经具备了足够的学识基础以攻读所申请修读的课程。
Dear SirMadam:
I gladly recommend my student Mr. Yi to you for his application to your graduate school program.
Mr. Yi enrolled in my courses of “Digital Control System”“Optimization Theory” during his senior year. In the former, he got a good score of 86/100ranked within top 5% of the class. In the latter which was opened for graduate students, he was one of the only three undergraduates who took this course. Throught the period of instruction, I found him an inquistiveattentive person. He always concentrated on my lecturesabsorb knowledge profoundly. Although some of the assignments were somewhat difficult to the average students, he could solved them completelycorrectly owing to his logicalanalytical thinkingthe clear conception to the theory.He also impressed me in the final project developing a program to resolve the free variable optimal problem. He thought deeplydid it skillfully, so the program could work very well even for the special cases (like cycling…) but still economicallyeasy to read. So I gave him the good scorewas better than many graduate students.
Besides, He also took a cluster of courses in ControlSystems Theory in his juniorsenior yearsalways got good scores.Upon my observation, Mr. Yi has been fully prepared to undertake a Master in your institute in the controlsystem fields. I am confident that with the ingenious learning abilitydiligent attitude that he has shown in the courses, he will be able to perform outstandingly even in a highly vigorous program. I have no hesitation in recommending himhope that you will consider his application favorably.