In this session, science meets practice. Letters of recommendation provide a useful but tricky source of information. Unfortunately, there is very little science based guidance to guide best practices. In an effort to address this gap, a recent longitudinal study examining admissions at the US Military Academy at West Point will be presented by one panelist. His lab examined how to use letters of recommendation to improve our ability to predict both academic and character outcomes for cadets including effective team leadership, avoiding misconduct, and being nominated as a moral exemplar by peers. This research even demonstrated the ability to predict career outcomes for officers 10 years after graduating from West Point using only teacher evaluations from high school. After this brief presentation of the research our expert panel of admissions leaders will react and discuss how we might implement better letters given the on-the-ground realities of professional practice.