Confidential Letter of Recommendation...help please!

[tiffxp]

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Hello people,

So I am having an issue right now but it may also be my pre-med anxiety......
The professor who wrote my letter of recommendation sent me the letter by email before I get a chance to send her a letter request from Interfolio. Can I still use her letter? Is it still considered as a "confidential letter" now that I have access to it?

I did read the letter and it is a really strong letter so I really want to use it towards my medical school app.

Any input helps thank you! and can @Goro also give me your thought on this?

 

[tiffxp]

anyone? 🙂

 

[acapnial]

Hello people,

So I am having an issue right now but it may also be my pre-med anxiety......
The professor who wrote my letter of recommendation sent me the letter by email before I get a chance to send her a letter request from Interfolio. Can I still use her letter? Is it still considered as a "confidential letter" now that I have access to it?

I did read the letter and it is a really strong letter so I really want to use it towards my medical school app.

Any input helps thank you! and can @Goro also give me your thought on this?

It's not terribly uncommon for people to show letters to people they're writing them for. She sent it to your email so she obviously is OK with you seeing it. It would be an issue if you surreptitiously snuck a peak at the letter without her consent, but that's not the case. You can use it.

 

[tiffxp]

It's not terribly uncommon for people to show letters to people they're writing them for. She sent it to your email so she obviously is OK with you seeing it. It would be an issue if you surreptitiously snuck a peak at the letter without her consent, but that's not the case. You can use it.

Hey thanks for your input.

But is it still considered a "confidential letter" now that she sent it to me?

 

[acapnial]

Hey thanks for your input.

But is it still considered a "confidential letter" now that she sent it to me?

Yeah. I mean it's been a while for me but I'm 99.9% sure that marking it confidential is just waiving your right to read the letter. Essentially giving interfolio permission to hide its contents from you. Leaving the box unchecked would NOT be an acknowledgment that you've seen the letter, it would be refusing to give up your right to access the letter. Which would make the letter useless and would make adcoms think you're trying to hide something that you're worried the letter writer might have spilled the beans on. So don't do that.

So, in short, it's considered a confidential letter when you waive your right to see it in interfolio. 99.9% sure. You'll feel better once Goro makes it 100% (assuming he doesn't come in here and say I'm totally wrong 😉).

 

[chibaddie]

It's still confidential. As long as it was uploaded confidentially and you had no means in changing it, then it's fine.

People request copies of LORs after their letter writers have uploaded all the time. At the end of the day, you need to submit a strong letter and you need to eliminate (through ethically sound means) all chances of jeopardizing that opportunity by ensuring that it is, in fact, a strong one-- if not, you ask someone else to write it.