Do people really waive their writes to read LOR's?

[14022]

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Just curious...a person in another forum wrote how she was able to take a "sneak peak" at a LOR. How common is this? At our school, by waiving the right to see LOR's, they make sure we never see them. Were other people allowed to view their LOR's before they were sent, yet still waived their right to see them?

To those that did not waive the right, did residency programs comment on this during interviews?

 

[Blade28]

I was always told to waive the right to see your LOR.

 

[14022]

I was always told to waive the right to see your LOR.

Yes, I understand that. My question is...how many people waive their right to see them (ie, check the box on ERAS or sign the form they give you or however they verify that you have waived that right) but go ahead and see their letters anyways (ie, their advisor shows them the letter)?

 

[electra]

I don't know anything about waiving the right to see your letters, and I certainly applied through ERAS. You could not pay me enough to send a letter for residency without seeing it first. No one on interviews ever commented to me about waiving any rights to see my letters and the preceptors who wrote the letters did not either.

 

[14022]

Now I am confused. Our Deans' strongly encourage us to waive our rights because they say programs will not take letters seriously if they know that we (the applicants) were able to see them before they're sent. They think that by having the student see the letter beforehand, the writer will not be honest with their letter.

Is our school the only program that does this? Personally I do not know what kind of letters my writers will put together. They say they can write a strong letter, so I guess I am supposed to believe them. But at the very least, I would like to proofread it for spelling, grammar, and any other things that may make the letter appear unprofessional. Maybe I am just being paranoid, but I think it is ridiculous that we feel almost forced into waiving our rights when it does not seem to be beneficial in any way.

 

[Blade28]

Ah, I see what you mean. Two of my four letter writers emailed me a copy of their LOR.

 

[PassinGas]

"Our Deans' strongly encourage us to waive our rights because they say programs will not take letters seriously if they know that we (the applicants) were able to see them before they're sent. They think that by having the student see the letter beforehand, the writer will not be honest with their letter. "

My Dean's office said the same thing. I was strongly encouraged to waive my right to see my letters. So I did as they suggested and waived my rights to read my letters. To get around this, you could type a cover letter to the letter writer telling them that you have included two envelopes for them to use to mail a copy of the letter to your Dean's office as well as a copy to you. If you include a stamped self-addressed envelope as well as a stamped envelope addressed to your Dean's office, 9 times out of 10 the letter writer will send you a copy--you made it so easy for them to do.

I did the above with all of my letter writers and got to see all of my LORs. If one of your letter writers doesn't send you a copy, you could just not attach it on ERAS, and no program would get it. Then just ask someone else to write you a letter who will send you a copy. Heck, you could ask 4 or 5 people to write you a letter and choose the best three if you like. Do whatever you want, just be sure to sincerely thank your letter writers for their time regardless of if you use their letter or not. They took the time to try to help you out, so it's the least you can do.

Remember, you waived your "right to see the letter." You did not, however, waive your right to read or even request your letter. It's that simple. You are not breaking the law by reading what a letter writer willingly provides for you to read. You just couldn't legally force them to show you the letter if they didn't want to show you. No matter what, though, you're in control of whether you release a letter on ERAS or not...so release the ones that you read and like. Good luck.

 

[timtye78]

I would say it depends on your school and your letter writer. Waiving your right to see the letter doesn't mean you aren't interested in it!

It does look better to select this option, but letter writers often slip a copy in the mail for the med student who requested it. Also, my residency advisor 'unofficially' allowed me to see mine as well.

Good luck

 

[gentamicin]

i am a bit confused...how do you waive the right to see your letter? when i asked my letter writers to write me a LOR we never discussed anything about waiving rights. they just wrote me the letter and sent me a copy of it in a self-addressed envelope that i gave them. i am just supposed to send the LOR to my school's dean's office to have it uploaded onto eras. but now, i realize that there's a form on eras that asks you if you have waived your right to see the letter. how do i answer this if i have already received some of the letters by mail? am i supposed to have my letter writers fill out that form? what should i do as far as waiving rights to letters that are pending? pls enlighten me. thanks

Yes, I understand that. My question is...how many people waive their right to see them (ie, check the box on ERAS or sign the form they give you or however they verify that you have waived that right) but go ahead and see their letters anyways (ie, their advisor shows them the letter)?

 

[AJM]

i am a bit confused...how do you waive the right to see your letter? when i asked my letter writers to write me a LOR we never discussed anything about waiving rights. they just wrote me the letter and sent me a copy of it in a self-addressed envelope that i gave them. i am just supposed to send the LOR to my school's dean's office to have it uploaded onto eras. but now, i realize that there's a form on eras that asks you if you have waived your right to see the letter. how do i answer this if i have already received some of the letters by mail? am i supposed to have my letter writers fill out that form? what should i do as far as waiving rights to letters that are pending? pls enlighten me. thanks

The way you're supposed to do it is give the letter writer the ERAS cover sheet and an envelope addressed to your school's dean's office. By having them send the letter to you, you are not waiving your right to see the letter. If you already have the letters in your possession, the only way to get around this is if you haven't opened the envelope yet. Give the Dean's office the letter in the sealed envelope, and you can then say that you have waived your right to see the letter. (they might not accept this from you, though -- often the letter-writer's signature has to go over the envelope seal, otherwise they can't tell whether you simply put the letter in a new self-addressed envelope after opening the original envelope).

 

[AJM]

Oh yeah --
Some of your letter writers may decide to send you a copy of their letter after you've waived your right to see it. That's okay -- they're choosing to show it to you without you asking to see it, so you're not actually exercising your right to see it. But by just giving them a self-addressed envelope as their only way to send the letter, you're basically implying that you want to see it before it's submitted to be uploaded, and therefore are choosing not to waive your right.

 

[supercut]

My schools also advised us to waive the rights to see our letters. I did that. And I didn't see any of my letters until after I matched. I got them later (cuz I was unhappy with the program and looking to switch). They were fine.

If you waive your right to see it, you shouldn't be asking for it. However, some programs will show them to you when you interview. Ask around in your field, and if there is a program in your area that is near you, you can make sure you apply there and see your letters on interview.

However, you should have a pretty good idea (ie from previous evaluations) that the person you ask would write a good letter. If they gave you a good evaluation, your letter should be good as well.

 

[Gut Shot]

I waived my right to see my LOR's and never laid eyes on them. Ever. Some interviewers commented on particular ones as being good. Who knows?

You can generally save a lot of trouble at the outset by simply asking for a good letter. Just tell the faculty person that if he/she can't write you a strong recommendation then don't bother, you'll find someone else.

If you get more letters than you need, the secretary in the Dean's Office might be able to nudge to towards the better ones. You'll just have to see about that.

 

[Gauss]

i am a bit confused...how do you waive the right to see your letter? when i asked my letter writers to write me a LOR we never discussed anything about waiving rights. they just wrote me the letter and sent me a copy of it in a self-addressed envelope that i gave them.

This is pretty typical. The whole ERAS cover letter thing is BS. No one cares about that. Some big institutions may have rules where they include in the letter if you waived your right or not, but usually interviewers never know if you read it. Usually they're just looking at the name of the letter writer to see if they know them.
Personally I think its not worth the risk to not read them. I've had some great rotations and read their letters which were absolute garbage - blah blah showed up on time blah blah enthusiastic etc. useless
I even know someone who did not read his letters, did not match, and later read his letters only to discover they may have hurt him. I even know one guy who was told during an interview to get rid of one of his letters and the interviewer showed it to him.
and you think these people didn't ask for a "good" letter?

 

[NebelDO]

what if you already have 2 letters in your posession? I recieved a letter from each surgery attending during my surgery rotations. Ive already seen the letters and i have them in my desk in envelopes. the letters do not have the "Dear PD or my AAMC ID on them becase they were written back months ago and given to me at the end of my rotation. Do i have to have these rewritten? i thought i could take my letters up pur our ERAS deans office and have them scanned when the time is right. DO the letters have to have the cover letter with them to be scanned??

this is going to be a pain if i have to have these rewritten..

any advice would be great..

 

[njbmd]

what if you already have 2 letters in your posession? I recieved a letter from each surgery attending during my surgery rotations. Ive already seen the letters and i have them in my desk in envelopes. the letters do not have the "Dear PD or my AAMC ID on them becase they were written back months ago and given to me at the end of my rotation. Do i have to have these rewritten? i thought i could take my letters up pur our ERAS deans office and have them scanned when the time is right. DO the letters have to have the cover letter with them to be scanned??

this is going to be a pain if i have to have these rewritten..

any advice would be great..

Hi there,
You may need to have these letters resent to your Deans office so that they may be loaded into your ERAS application if you are applying to residency programs that use ERAS. There might be a different system for DO residencies so I would consult your Deans office to see what you need to do. Many Deans offices will not accept letters from students (this is the policy at my medical school).

Check this out pretty quickly as application deadline time is getting close.
njbmd 🙂