What kind of letterhead should my LOR be on if my former professor is no longer employed by the same school?

[Yellow Trees]

I took a few classes with a professor that knows me very well. She retired this year and is no longer employed by the university where I took classes from her. Would it be acceptable for her to make her own version of letterhead from the university or should she just make personal letterhead and state her former affiliation with the university?

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[deleted941290]

have you asked if she still has letterhead from your school?

 

[Yellow Trees]

have you asked if she still has letterhead from your school?

He doesn't. I'm trying to contact people at the school to get some, but they seem confused and unhelpful. Some of them don't even think that it is acceptable for her to use official letterhead as a former employee.

 

[LizzyM]

What I've generally seen is that the faculty member uses their current letterhead which , in this case, would be from a different school. The letter will say "I knew Yellow Trees when he enrolled in my class, Chem 202, at Podunk College in Spring 2017." Often a letter will close with something like this, "based on my 15 years experience at Podunk College and now in my position as professor of chemistry at Sossow University, I would place Yellow Trees among the top 10% of students on the pre-med track. I highly recommend..."

I have even seen a letter from a university president who taught the applicant a couple years earlier when the writer was a college professor at a different school. Obviously, the power of the letter came, in part from the letterhead that was "Office of the President".

Oops! I missed that OP's situation is that the professor is retired. In that case, she should just make some personal letterhead which is easy to do with software these days.

 

[Yellow Trees]

What I've generally seen is that the faculty member uses their current letterhead which , in this case, would be from a different school. The letter will say "I knew Yellow Trees when he enrolled in my class, Chem 202, at Podunk College in Spring 2017." Often a letter will close with something like this, "based on my 15 years experience at Podunk College and now in my position as professor of chemistry at Sossow University, I would place Yellow Trees among the top 10% of students on the pre-med track. I highly recommend..."

I have even seen a letter from a university president who taught the applicant a couple years earlier when the writer was a college professor at a different school. Obviously, the power of the letter came, in part from the letterhead that was "Office of the President".

Oops! I missed that OP's situation is that the professor is retired. In that case, she should just make some personal letterhead which is easy to do with software these days.

Thank you for your suggestion! I'm perfectly fine with personal letterhead, but I'm not sure if many medical schools are. The AAMC states that "Medical schools may require letters to be on official letterhead and include the author's signature." Do you think that I would run into any issues of medical schools invalidating the letter? Obviously, I can have the LOR writer indicate their status as retired.

Also, if any additional context matters, this is a science professor that I worked with for several years in a very small classroom setting. I have a very strong relationship with them and know they will write me a very strong letter. That is the reason I am going through the hassle of getting one from a retired individual.

 

[LizzyM]

I think that a signature on even "homemade" letterhead will be acceptable from a retired professor.

I think that the medical schools might be trying to avoid getting an unsigned letter on plain paper that, for all they know, could have been faked. If someone signs a letter and identifies as I.M.Kooky, PhD. (retired) there won't be much of an issue at all.