Recommendation letters from professors.

[roni]

Hello guys,

I'm getting recommendation letters from professors and they are telling me to give them the addresses of the schools so that they can send it directly to the schools.

Is this how it's done ?

Can't I just take it from them and send it directly when I start applyingc ?

What do people, who have been 10 years in the market, do ?


Thanks,
Roni.

 

[helpteye]

That is the way it is supposed to work. The idea is that the person being recommended should not be able to see or explicitly know what was written. It is supposedly a confidential process.

 

[cmvyas]

I took it from the professor in advance and applied thereafter.

 

[roni]

That is the way it is supposed to work. The idea is that the person being recommended should not be able to see or explicitly know what was written. It is supposedly a confidential process.

Is this how you did ?
then I can't take it before I apply ?
what if I get a job for 2 years and then apply ?
how do I take a letter for a professor ?

it just doesn't make sense to me...

---------- Post added at 11:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:47 AM ----------

I took it from the professor in advance and applied thereafter.

oh, so it's possible...
it doesn't have to be in a sealed envelope or something, right?

 

[Connor]

Best thing to do if you don't want the professors to send it to the university directly is tell them that you aren't applying right away for the next year and get them to seal their letter in an envelope (prefer university branded envelope if available).

They may not want to do this in which case you could try having them write the letter and keep it and send it later when you do apply.

When are you going to apply? Earliest now would be for Fall 2011

 

[roni]

Best thing to do if you don't want the professors to send it to the university directly is tell them that you aren't applying right away for the next year and get them to seal their letter in an envelope (prefer university branded envelope if available).

They may not want to do this in which case you could try having them write the letter and keep it and send it later when you do apply.

When are you going to apply? Earliest now would be for Fall 2011

I'm going to apply in mid Sept... it's not that far....
So, I might tell him that I want to send it by myself with the whole application.

if he doesn't approve, I'll tell him to keep it and I'll contact him when I'm ready to apply.

Thanks.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

This is so year 2000. When I applied in 2006, I emailed my recommenders a link, they fill in the letter online and I will get an email notification when they submitted.
What kind of school haven't set up a system like this in year 2010?

And always waive your right to see the letter. That means it will be sealed, you should never see or touch it.

 

[Mr Doe]

And always waive your right to see the letter. That means it will be sealed, you should never see or touch it.

Why is it so? I understand the desire of the professors that a student can't come into a position to alter the recommendation letter in any way, but why shouldn't the student see what the prof wrote about him?!

 

[roni]

This is so year 2000. When I applied in 2006, I emailed my recommenders a link, they fill in the letter online and I will get an email notification when they submitted.
What kind of school haven't set up a system like this in year 2010?

And always waive your right to see the letter. That means it will be sealed, you should never see or touch it.

Where do you have this option?
During the MFE application process?

And, what if you are coming from the market ?
what do you do then ? how do you get the professor do it for you ?

Thanks.

 

[goodstudent]

Why is it so? I understand the desire of the professors that a student can't come into a position to alter the recommendation letter in any way, but why shouldn't the student see what the prof wrote about him?!

Allowing you to read the letter can potentially pressure the professor to write a biased letter. After all, it's a letter from the professor to the admission office, not to you. Even though the writing is regarding you, the professor has no obligation to show you what he/she wrote.

 

[roni]

Allowing you to read the letter can potentially pressure the professor to write a biased letter. After all, it's a letter from the professor to the admission office, not to you. Even though the writing is regarding you, the professor has no obligation to show you what he/she wrote.

I'm sorry but it makes no sense !
The professor MUST write only good things about you.
if s/he can't, the professor shouldn't even agree to write the letter.

these recommendation letters should be biased.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

roni,
You obviously haven't read 4000+ letters from 1000+ applications like I do.
You select the people that you think will write the best letters for you. What they actually write is another matter and you have zero influence on what they will write.

 

[goodstudent]

I'm sorry but it makes no sense !
The professor MUST write only good things about you.
if s/he can't, the professor shouldn't even agree to write the letter.

these recommendation letters should be biased.

Sorry for being unclear. When I said biased I meant that even if the letter is only about good things, the professors might still feel uncomfortable writing about certain stuff if they know you will be reading it. I didn't mean that a professor will be writing crap about you behind your back.

BTW If you don't think a professor will write only good things about you, they you should probably get someone else. Like what Andy just pointed out

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Why is it so? I understand the desire of the professors that a student can't come into a position to alter the recommendation letter in any way, but why shouldn't the student see what the prof wrote about him?!

This could be due to cultural difference between US and rest of world or something but in the US it's almost, always that students waive the rights for the LOR.
I don't recall seeing any application that does not.

 

[Mr Doe]

you have zero influence on what they will write.

Andy, I'm sorry but I don't understand how can I influence the professor in any way, if my reading of the letter would be a post festum act?
Can you explain me what unpleasant event should occur if I would be able to read the rec. letter from a professor (make something up or maybe share your experience)?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Would you feel more comfortable writing something negative about me if you know I will read your letter at some point? By negative, it doesn't have to be "literally bad". It can be in the form of how they recommend you. It varies with "strongly recommended", "recommended", "recommended in strongest terms", etc. Not saying strongly enough may as well be not saying anything at all.
I never bother to care about what my recommender will write. And I don't expect to ever be able to read it anyway. I have dozens of people writing for me over the years and only one of them showed me a draft, unprompted.

The letter is glowing, few pages long. I expect it's the case for my other letters as well but if not the case, so be it.

When I choose someone to write me a letter, I want someone that knows me very well, both professionally and personally. I don't want just someone who wrote that i got an A in his advanced calculus class. That's what majority of those letters are.

People seem to have an idea of entitlement that they deserve a good letter from their writers. It needs to be earned. You develop a good relationship with other people and letters are just side effects of being a good person.

 

[coolharvard]

You can definitely collect the letters from your recommenders and mail the letters along with the rest of application material to the schools by yourself. (Some schools prefer this way if this is not done online.) If the schools or the professors are worried about you taking a peak at the letters, then all the professors have to do is to sign at the seal of the envelope. This way, if the seal is broken, then it becomes invalid because of the signature..

But frankly, all of my recommenders don't care if I read the letters or not. Actually, they gave me a copy of what they wrote when they handed me the sealed letters. If the professors don't want you to read the letters, then you can guess they probably wrote some negative things about you.

 

[Lyosha]

When I applied to grad schools, I asked about this, and it was made very clear that the proper way to go about recommendation letters is to drop off stamped addressed envelopes to professors (if e-mail is not an option... email makes everything easier). That I was to not touch letters or transcripts. Anything below that is considered a serious faux pas, and, depending on the school/program you apply to, may go as far as to completely break your application (I'm not on any entrance committees so I don't know for certain, but I can see how it could happen...). So why take the risk? It's your future you're gambling with.

 

[helpteye]

Why is it so? I understand the desire of the professors that a student can't come into a position to alter the recommendation letter in any way, but why shouldn't the student see what the prof wrote about him?!

The idea is you ask a professor who you think respects you enough to write something good about you; also he/she should only agree if he/she thinks the recommendation would be good. Otherwise the response would be something along the lines: "I do not know you that well".

---------- Post added at 11:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:47 PM ----------

Andy, I'm sorry but I don't understand how can I influence the professor in any way, if my reading of the letter would be a post festum act?
Can you explain me what unpleasant event should occur if I would be able to read the rec. letter from a professor (make something up or maybe share your experience)?

Why do you want to read the letter? Choose the recommender well!