さて、他の施設や大学の状況は分からないので、ここからはNIHに限って（管理人の経験で）書きます。
NIHに運良く受入先が見つかって、留学するとなるとまず必要なのは recommendation
letterです。これはNIHに限らず欧米に留学する場合は必須です。留学先のボスの了解をもらっている場合でも、軽く考えずに準備しましょう。書いていただくのは、基本的にはprofessorの肩書きがある人
に お願いすることになります。とはいえ、Professorともなると忙しい方が多いようで、管理人の場合2通は自分で書いて、内容をチェックしtもらいサインをいただきました。
いい印象をもってもらうため、自分の実力を150%ぐらいまで膨らまして書く（要ははったりですが）のがコツのようです。自分で自分のことをほめてると、尻がむずがゆくなりますが我慢して書きました。
ちなみに、自分で書いたrecommendation letterの原文を載せておきます。実際に送ったものは訂正が入っているので、これとは微妙に異なるはずです。
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August 26, 2003
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****** ********** PhD
Chief, Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology
Section
Basic Research Laboratory
National Cancer Institute
*******************
10 Center Drive
Bethesda, MD 20892-1402
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It is my privilege to write you a
letter of recommendation for Dr. Kaz who
is working in our department of gastrointestinal
surgery, Tohoku university.
I learned recently of your kind offer to
him of a postdoctoral fellowship position
from January, 2003. Dr. Kaz is not only very
skillful surgeon but also a research worker
who has eagerness to make it clear how cancer
cells make hematogenous metastasis. The experience
of working with you on cellular biology will
certainly be of great help to him in broadening
his field of interest and for his future
work.
Dr. Kaz has worked with me in the department
since 1995. He is highly adaptable, a capable
scientist and a hard worker. He has been
investigated mostly the mechanism of hematogenous
metastasis of colorectal carcinoma and has
clarified clinicopathologically that macrophages
expressing matrix degrading enzymes in stroma
along invasive margin of colorectal carcinoma
play an important role in prevention of hematogenous
metastasis. (**********. 2000 Apr 1;86 (1):
24-9.)
He reads and writes English very well, much
better than most Japanese students. I do
not know how fluently he speaks English,
but I am very certain from my own experience
that he will be able to understand and speak
English as fluently as an American after
a few months in Washington DC.
I can recommend him most highly to you and
I feel it would be beneficial both to you
and to him if you accepted him as a postdoctoral
fellow. I sincerely hope that he will be
given an opportunity to work with you.
Best regards,
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***********, MD, PhD.
Professor
Department of Surgery
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Tohoku university |
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留学準備
Recomendation Letter