Letter of Recommendation troubles

[Levitin]

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A doctor that worked with the law firm i used to work for wrote me a stellar letter of recommendation. However, he sent me a copy and in no part of it does he indicate how he knows me. At this point its too late for him to make any changes, but im wondering whether i should use it since it doesn't indicate anything about how he knows me, so adcoms might think he is a family friend. Should I send out the letter and then just explain it in my interviews or should i just not use the letter? I still have a committee letter packet which includes letters from a few professors, a letter from a doctor i shadowed, and a letter from the PHd i was a research assistant for, so the letter isnt absolutely necessary. However its a really great letter so it would be a shame to waste it. Thanks!

 

[Levitin]

Anyone?

 

[Pacna]

If it's a stellar letter, it's a stellar letter. If you worked for him, put that in your AMCAS (don't say "I have to tell you how I know him because he forgot to put that in the LoR").

Adcoms are smart cookies.

 

[Syialb]

I think the bigger issue here is that on AMCAS you must explicitly agree that you did not see the letters of recommendation. This is technically an ethical violation.

 

[Levitin]

I think the bigger issue here is that on AMCAS you must explicitly agree that you did not see the letters of recommendation. This is technically an ethical violation.

This is true. He sent it to me after he submitted it to AMCAS and I had applied it to my schools, and i had no idea he was going to let me read it, so i wasn't lying when i said that i hadn't read it at the time.

I guess what im asking is is there anyway this letter would hurt me? For instance, ADCOMs might think i dont know the difference between quality and quantity and just submitted another letter for the hell of it.

 

[mvenus929]

I think the bigger issue here is that on AMCAS you must explicitly agree that you did not see the letters of recommendation. This is technically an ethical violation.

Technically, you're waiving your RIGHT to see the letter, not stating that you did not see the letter (unless AMCAS has changed their wording in the past couple years... but that's the wording that's on ERAS as well). A couple of my letter writers in the past have sent me their drafts of the letter without me asking them to... while I could potentially not look at the letter, it's not ethically wrong of me to have it if I didn't ask for it. After all, the whole point of asking you to waive your right is so that professors don't feel coerced somehow into writing only good things. Presumably, if a letter writer is showing you the letter voluntarily, they have only good things to say about you.

But even if you do read (or even write) it, from the time it leaves your hands til the time they send it in, they have control over the letter and could change it without your knowledge. By waiving your right to see it, you're saying that you won't ask the school's admissions office to show you the final letter, or requesting that you proof the letter prior to it being sent.

 

[life1234]

hello
I hope smn can help me,
I finalized my letters of recommendations as waived and this is wrong, so I finalized the letters of recommendation same doctors but not waived, so for each doctor i have waived and not waived finalization. the thing is that i did a mistake the first time, i misread the statement" i waive my right to view the letters" but i can not delete the finalized ones. is this wrong?? what shall i do ??

 

[SN12357]

hello
I hope smn can help me,
I finalized my letters of recommendations as waived and this is wrong, so I finalized the letters of recommendation same doctors but not waived, so for each doctor i have waived and not waived finalization. the thing is that i did a mistake the first time, i misread the statement" i waive my right to view the letters" but i can not delete the finalized ones. is this wrong?? what shall i do ??

I have absolutely no idea what you're saying so I'm just going to address the major misconception about waiving your right to see your letters I see on SDN all the time.

You waive your RIGHT to see the letters. You do not swear that you have not seen them or never seen them. If your letter writers spontaneously offer them to you, either before sending them or after, you have done nothing wrong and don't need to report anything.

 

[thisisansley]

i have absolutely no idea what you're saying so i'm just going to address the major misconception about waiving your right to see your letters i see on sdn all the time.

You waive your right to see the letters. You do not swear that you have not seen them or never seen them. If your letter writers spontaneously offer them to you, either before sending them or after, you have done nothing wrong and don't need to report anything.

+1