Requesting a Letter of Reference - Undergraduates

I (Dr. Bliss-Moreau) am happy to write letters of reference for students who have taken my classes and/or worked in my lab whom I know well. In general, writing strong letters of reference requires having an established relationship with the student so that I can speak to both academic performance and other qualities that are relevant for the reference (motivation, ability to overcome obstacles, etc).

For students who have taken one of my large classes (PSC154V, PSC121, PSC122, etc.): in order for me to write a letter for you, I must have gotten to know you during class, office hours, or labs (for 121 and 122). In cases where all that I know about you is your grade, I cannot write a letter (or fill out a recommendation) that will serve you well. After submitting >400 recommendations for the 2025-2026 deadlines, it became clear that I would need to change my policy.

As a general rule, I only write letters of reference for people who waive rights to review the letters. You’ll see this as an option when you fill out the request for recommendations.

If you wish for me to write a reference, please follow these steps:

  1. Reach out at least 4-6 weeks before the letter is due to request the letter - you can send me an email to do this. I rarely can accept requests to write a new letter with less than 4 weeks notice. Once I have a letter written for you, I can generally update it more quickly.

  2. Send your CV/resume, transcript with grades, and info about what programs/jobs/schools to which you are applying.

  3. Send a list of the places where the letter will need to be sent and the dates they are due. This is so that I can get a sense of how many letters and their timing, but please do not assume that I am tracking which letters are sent when.

  4. If you are from a big class, remind me of which class and the term. (This sounds nuts, I know, but I once wrote a wonderful reference for a woman with a common name who took my 154 class. I wrote it for the person who took the class in 2019, not the person who requested it who took the course in 2020).

  5. Generally, for graduate programs, you will fill out part of an application and it will generate a digital link that is sent to me to submit the letter. Do this EARLY so that I have the link as quickly as possible. Make sure the information that you submit for me is accurate. During the 2025-2026 season, I got >50 requests where my name was wrong… this speaks to attention to detail.

    Eliza Bliss-Moreau, Ph.D.
    Chancellor’s Leadership Professor of Psychology (most of the time, use this as a title)
    Core Scientist at the California National Primate Research Center (include this only if you are applying to programs for which NHP work is relevant)
    University of California Davis
    eblissmoreau@ucdavis.edu
    530-752-6268

  6. If I have not confirmed that I sent the letter(s), follow up ~ 3 days before the due date(s). I typically forward confirmation that I have submitted the letter directly to the student. Please keep track of this so you can alert me if a letter has been missed. The UC Davis email spam filter for facutly and staff is super aggressive and occasionally an email request gets lost.

  7. Finally - let me know the outcome of your applications!