In addition to completing the Graduate School Letter of Recommendation Form, you may attach your reference letter, written on your letterhead, to it. Place the letter in an envelope, seal it, and sign your name across the seal. You may return it to the applicant for inclusion with the application packet. 

If you have a strong preference, you may return your letter of recommendation to: 

Ph.D. Program Admissions, School of Social Work, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 301 Pittsboro Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3550. 

 In your reference letter, please comment on as many of the following as you can. 

 1. How long and in what capacity have you known the applicant? 

 2.   What are your perceptions about the applicant's motivations and interest in pursuing social work doctoral education? 

 3.    What is your evaluation of the applicant's ability to analyze and understand complex social problems and issues? Please indicate on what, concretely, you are basing this evaluation. 

4.      What is your evaluation of the applicant's interest in and capacity for research, theory building, and evaluation of practice? Please indicate on what, concretely, you are basing this evaluation. 

5.      Please identify areas such as work performance, interpersonal competence, and personal characteristics which you believe might either help or hinder the applicant's successful completion of the doctoral program. 

6.     These skills are important for successful performance at the doctoral level: time management, work load management, meeting deadlines, and coordinating a number of complex tasks. Would you comment on the applicant's mastery of these skills, please. 

7.      If you have knowledge or impressions about the applicant's commitment to the field of social work and its values and an understanding of social work processes, we will appreciate your sharing them.