What should I include when asking for a recommendation?

Everything the recommender would otherwise have to look up: your results and position, your activities, the relevant family circumstances, the name of the award and its closing date. A recommendation is written faster and better when the facts are supplied.

Should I give an earlier deadline than the real one?

Yes, and say why — so that the application can be submitted with time in hand. Asking for it ten days before the true closing date is reasonable, protects you against delay, and does not misrepresent anything.

Is it acceptable to mention family circumstances?

For a need-based scholarship, yes, and briefly. The award is decided partly on need, so the recommender must be able to speak to it. State the facts plainly in a sentence; a longer account belongs in the scholarship form rather than in this request.

English · Application

Application for a Recommendation Letter for a Scholarship

Model application to the principal for a scholarship recommendation, with the facts supplied.

An application naming the award and closing date and giving the recommender the facts required.

How to write it

Name the scholarship exactly, the awarding body and the closing date. A recommendation cannot be written for an unnamed award.
Give the facts the recommender will need: your results, your position, your activities, and anything specific the award asks about.
Attach the form if there is one, and say where the signature and seal are required.
Give a realistic deadline, earlier than the true one, and offer to collect the letter yourself.

Model

Date: 5 September 2026

The Principal

Government College, Cumilla

Subject: Application for a recommendation letter for a scholarship.

Sir

With due respect, I beg to state that I am a student of Class XII, Science group, of your college, bearing roll number 17. I wish to apply for the Prime Minister's Education Assistance Trust scholarship for meritorious and needy students, for which applications close on 30 September.

The application requires a recommendation from the head of the institution, together with the college seal, on the printed form which I am enclosing. For your kind reference: I stood first in my class in the first-year final examination with GPA 5.00, I have represented the college in the divisional science olympiad, and I have acted as the assistant secretary of the science club for the past year. My father is a rickshaw-puller and my mother works as a domestic help, and I have been receiving the college's poor-fund assistance since Class XI.

I should be grateful if the recommendation could be ready by 20 September, so that I may submit the application with time in hand. I shall call at the office to collect it at your convenience.

I, therefore, pray and hope that you would be kind enough to grant me a recommendation for this scholarship and oblige thereby.

I remain,

Sir,

Your obedient student,

Md. Sohel Rana

Class XII, Science Group, Roll 17