Send LOR to yourself

[EpiPEN]

It's against rules and all... but don't tell me you haven't had the urge to enter your good buddy's address as one of the addresses you tell your electronic filing office to send your LOR's. It's been very tempting to try to find out what people wrote about me...

Anyone actually try doing it?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[LucidSplash]

When I applied, my boss wrote me a LOR. She actually gave me a copy (I did not request one) and said "why don't you read it before I send it to make sure its ok." She wrote wonderful things about me and there was absolutely no problem with the letter but I found it very awkward. One of the PhDs I worked with also gave me a copy, same deal. Later, before I left my job to start school, my direct supervisor (who by that time was head of the department as my old boss had left) also gave me a copy of the letter she wrote, without me asking for it. Again, nice letter, and I was already "in" at that point, but I still found it very awkward.

Maybe its just my personality, but I found all those situations to be really uncomfortable. I can't imagine how I'd feel if I'd surrepticiously gained access to the letters and then had to carry on around those individuals as though I hadn't seen the letters.

 

[TheElement]

When I applied, my boss wrote me a LOR. She actually gave me a copy (I did not request one) and said "why don't you read it before I send it to make sure its ok." She wrote wonderful things about me and there was absolutely no problem with the letter but I found it very awkward. One of the PhDs I worked with also gave me a copy, same deal. Later, before I left my job to start school, my direct supervisor (who by that time was head of the department as my old boss had left) also gave me a copy of the letter she wrote, without me asking for it. Again, nice letter, and I was already "in" at that point, but I still found it very awkward.

Maybe its just my personality, but I found all those situations to be really uncomfortable. I can't imagine how I'd feel if I'd surrepticiously gained access to the letters and then had to carry on around those individuals as though I hadn't seen the letters.

Haha for a good while I thought the "it" you found awkward was your letter itself.

 

[DrYoda]

My school's LOR service will only send letters to other schools.

 

[riceman04]

I actually had a friend who did this. It is very dishonest...and he should not have asked those people for interviews if he was not certain they would write a great LOR

 

[Lacheln]

Maybe its just my personality, but I found all those situations to be really uncomfortable. I can't imagine how I'd feel if I'd surrepticiously gained access to the letters and then had to carry on around those individuals as though I hadn't seen the letters.

100% agree. I mean, it's great to see on paper that people want to see you succeed and believe in you, but ^1000. It was horribly embarrassing. And I'm not shy! After seeing 2, I told the next one who tried to show me that I trusted him and would rather not see it.

OP, I can understand the curiosity aspect, but it's totally unethical to sign a waiver and then go after the info through trickery. That sort of behavior eventually comes back to bite you in the butt.

 

[Bacchus]

This is incredibly dishonest. I haven't had the urge to get a copy of any of my letters. Quite frankly, I trust my writers' ability; however I would hate to know if one of them tanked me after putting all faith in them.

 

[shemarty]

I also had two of my LOR writers e-mail me a copy of it as they were ready to mail it in. I didn't ask, they just offered. I guess it was just a courtesy thing, or a "in case you wanted to see what I said about you....here it is...." thing.

In one of them, I caught a typo! The rest of the letter was great, and so he apologized and fixed that, haha...

It's definitely kind of weird to read about yourself, but it's reassuring to know that you have great mentors who think highly of you and support you.

I would never mail my packet to myself, which goes against my signed waiver to request to see the letters.

However, a third LOR writer also offered to send me a copy (after he fixes his crashed computer ), and I didn't decline.

 

[175961]

Does it really matter though??? Sure it may be dishonest, but the schools are already going to have the letter (arent they?) so theres nothing you can do about it. If you try approaching the letter writer about it you probably will f*** all chances of them writing more letters for others...so in that respect I think its a dumb thing to do

 

[Bacchus]

Does it really matter though??? Sure it may be dishonest, but the schools are already going to have the letter (arent they?) so theres nothing you can do about it. If you try approaching the letter writer about it you probably will f*** all chances of them writing more letters for others...so in that respect I think its a dumb thing to do

Premeds arent selfless, selfish however...

 

[nick_carraway]

I actually had a friend who did this. It is very dishonest...and he should not have asked those people for interviews if he was not certain they would write a great LOR

I look at this whole issue from another angle, which is that an applicant should know exactly what is going into his/her application. In fact, with the amount of money that you spend on apps, you'd be foolish not to read your letters if you had the chance.

You only waive your right to demand to see your student record at future schools. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act does not say that you cannot read your letters of recommendation at all.

The only unethical/dishonest/immoral behavior would be if a student altered a letter of recommendation and submitted the censored copy to schools.

 

[LucidSplash]

Haha for a good while I thought the "it" you found awkward was your letter itself.

A fair criticism. My writing abilities have gone way downhill since college. Sigh

 

[bcat85]

If the offer is there, go for it. When I applied to a couple of SIP's, I had to personally upload a letter from my advisor and another professor, so they had to send it to me. It def. worked out in my favor, because I knew they would write me a good LOR when I applied to medical school.

 

[Lacheln]

I look at this whole issue from another angle, which is that an applicant should know exactly what is going into his/her application. In fact, with the amount of money that you spend on apps, you'd be foolish not to read your letters if you had the chance.

You only waive your right to demand to see your student record at future schools. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act does not say that you cannot read your letters of recommendation at all.

The only unethical/dishonest/immoral behavior would be if a student altered a letter of recommendation and submitted the censored copy to schools.

The letters are going out whether you like what they say or not, at least under the system with committee letters. Interfolio might be different, I don't know how it works. The whole point of confidential letters is to encourage candid response, so, yes, there's a benefit in saying "I'm going to sign away my rights to see them because I feel confident that I've been able to find 5 people who respect and support me 100%". The only benefit in knowing what is in them is if they are bad and you need to do damage control. And if that's the case then I suspect you've got bigger problems anyhow.

And BTW, the waiver I signed had nothing to do with the family rights act. It was explicitly talking about the letters my letter writers were being asked for, and it was right on the letter request form, so they know right off the bat that I've waived the right to see it. It's a pretty common thing, but again, I don't know if things are different when you don't use a committee.

The money you pay into this process doesn't entitle you to much. Get used to it.

 

[nick_carraway]

The letters are going out whether you like what they say or not, at least under the system with committee letters. Interfolio might be different, I don't know how it works. The whole point of confidential letters is to encourage candid response, so, yes, there's a benefit in saying "I'm going to sign away my rights to see them because I feel confident that I've been able to find 5 people who respect and support me 100%". The only benefit in knowing what is in them is if they are bad and you need to do damage control. And if that's the case then I suspect you've got bigger problems anyhow.

And BTW, the waiver I signed had nothing to do with the family rights act. It was explicitly talking about the letters my letter writers were being asked for, and it was right on the letter request form, so they know right off the bat that I've waived the right to see it. It's a pretty common thing, but again, I don't know if things are different when you don't use a committee.

The money you pay into this process doesn't entitle you to much. Get used to it.

I agree that reading the letters doesn't affect what's already been sent. However, by reading them if given the opportunity, you can pull a LOR from your committee file so it never reaches a school in the first place or in preparation for a reapplication.

We all like to believe that everything in a LOR is well written in support of your application, but blind faith only goes so far. Recommenders have bad days; they mistype, they misremember, they write poorly, etc. One SDNer in particular had to reapply three times just to find out that one LOR wasn't up to snuff.

Knowing what's in your application is a good strategy because although the money you spend doesn't entitle you to anything, it still is a substantial amount of money to any individual or family and spending it blindly when you don't have to is just not smart.

As for LOR waivers, the ones I've seen typically have to do with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Otherwise you can solicit your student record at your next school and see them anyway despite the miscellaneous waivers you've signed. I obviously can't comment on your particular school though.

 

[SN2ed]

If I didn't think my LOR writers would write me a good recommendation, then I wouldn't have asked them in the first place.

 

[LikeClockWork]

None of my LOR writers ever let me see what they wrote. I don't think I have any kind of concept of what a LOR would look like. Does it just sound like one big sloppy wet kiss for the candidate or what?

 

[Green Grass]

None of my LOR writers ever let me see what they wrote. I don't think I have any kind of concept of what a LOR would look like. Does it just sound like one big sloppy wet kiss for the candidate or what?

Same here, apparently we suck.

 

[scowdeva]

Yeah, none of my letter writers offered me my letters either. I have to admit I considered sending my letters to someone, but only at the point where I had gotten about 6 interviews that didn't result in an acceptance. I started to worry about the letters, as it was the only unknown in my file, after I did two sets of mock interviews and got really good feedback from them. I think it was a legitimate concern, getting the interview, but not being able to close the deal. It would be nice if schools would tell you why they reject you after an interview, so that you could catch a not so great letter or one that the writer made a mistake on.

I have a really good friend that the writer was writing two letters out and put them in the wrong envelopes, resulting in Interfolio having letters with the wrong names and activities on. You would hope that they schools would consider a mix up like that, but I can see how it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that the writer didn't even know John from Sarah...that's not a reason to tank something as important as a medical school application, but I'm sure it's happened more than just once or twice. The only reason my friend found out about the mix up was he was on first name basis with the dean, and scheduled a meeting to see why he didn't even get a waitlist after the interview. She told him that he had a problem with letter X, so he went from there. Most people wouldn't be so lucky to actually find out what was wrong so they could fix it.

Oh, and by the way, I didn't request my letters in the end. I let my subscription to Interfolio run out, so they are now lost in cyberspace to me forever.

 

[LikeClockWork]

Same here, apparently we suck.

 

[EpiPEN]

Yes it's dishonest and I'm not saying we should do it. But haven't any of you wondered if that letter from this professor was the reason why Harvard didn't give you that interview or if you had said something contradicting about how you viewed yourself and how your trusted advisors viewed about you?

 

[armybound]

Been tempted to, but I'm not going to.

Maybe after I get accepted or something.

 

[EpiPEN]

Been tempted to, but I'm not going to.

Maybe after I get accepted or something.

I'll be expecting to link this thread a year from now when you post the same question

 

[bawer234]

Now that I've been accepted I really don't see anything horribly unehtical about it. I'm not going to do it, but Im definitely not going to judge other applicants for looking over the LORs after they have matriculated.

 

[SirGecko]

Its unethical if you signed something saying you waive your right to see the letter. (as you are lying in saying that it is anonymous) If someone offered to let me see the letter I wouldn't take them up on it.

 

[armybound]

I'll be expecting to link this thread a year from now when you post the same question

I'll just do it and not tell SDN about it so I can retain my moral internet-superiority.

 

[shemarty]

I had never thought about it. While I could do it, I do not really want to do it. I think the idea of private LOR is that the writer can be as honest as possible. The LOR writer would not be that happy if you read it. Do medical schools let you view your admissions file upon matriculation?

Yes, when they write it, they know that you have promised to never look at it. They can be as honest as possible, and they write very candidly. After they finish the letter, if they voluntarily send it to you just to show you what great things they said, I don't believe that it's unethical to "take them up on it." That's what my premed advisor said, too. It's okay to read them if the LOR writer voluntarily shows it to you.

But, I can understand why some people might be uncomfortable reading their own letters.

Either way, it's still not right to sneakily request that your letters be sent to yourself so that you can read them without your LOR writers knowing. That's blatantly violating the wavier you signed.