# The committee's rubric for recommendation letters

Derived from Article 9 of the programme's regulations (data/regulations-phd.md). Up to 10 points per application.

| Criterion | Strong evidence | Weak evidence |
|-----------|-----------------|---------------|
| Relationship | the referee supervised or taught the candidate, and says for how long | unclear how the referee knows the candidate |
| Concrete evidence | specific contributions (projects, thesis, publications), with details | adjectives only ("brilliant", "hard-working") |
| Research potential | independence in formulating research questions | executes tasks well, no mention of autonomy |
| Comparison | ranks the candidate among other students supervised by the referee | no comparison |
| Tailoring | addressed to this programme, mentions its research lines | generic, or addressed to another programme |
| Weaknesses | reported honestly, weighed against the rest | none reported, or serious ones left unexplained |

Admissibility (not points): letters written by relatives of the candidate are inadmissible;
letters must be written by people who know the candidate in an academic or professional capacity.

Score each criterion as strong, weak, or absent, and justify it with a quote.
Suggest a score range (e.g. 6-8 points), never a single number: the committee decides.