Letters of Recommendation

JustinaJ

Letters of Recommendation
Access Rights Waiver

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Important Note: We strongly encourage you to respond "yes" and waive your right to view letters of recommendation at the law schools. Recommenders may be more candid and, consequently, the law schools may look more favorably upon your application.
The purpose for which this confidential statement is being obtained is admission to a Credential Assembly Service–participating law school. It will be received and maintained in confidence. If you are admitted and enroll–and if your law school retains letters of recommendation once the admission process is concluded–you may inspect this letter at that school unless you have voluntarily waived this right by answering "yes" below, after reading the following statement.

Waiver
I understand that letters and statements of recommendation concerning me are sent to the Credential Assembly Service—participating law schools to which I apply, and I hereby expressly and voluntarily waive any and all access rights I might have to such recommendations under the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and state law, or any other laws, regulations, or policies. (Law School Admission Council will not process this letter if this statement has been modified or altered in any way).
Once you make a selection for this letter, it cannot be changed.

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Can anyone give advice on this? Do I waive my rights to access? If I am submitting the letters with the form I am seeing them regardless... not sure which to choose?

Nilesh S

@JustinaJ Yes... you should waive your rights to see the letter as it may affect the credibility and weight of the same by inducing the admissions committee to assume that your referee has been less forthcoming about you and you have had a controlling hand in the crafting of the recommendation: here take a look at this - http://www.career.cornell.edu/paths/graduate/applying/upload/waiving.pdf
also
http://wiselikeus.com/collegewise/2010/09/should-you-waive-your-rights-to-see-your-letters-of-rec.html
Ideally you shouldn't have access to what your referee writes about you unless he/she shows you - and educational institutions in general assume this - and so, you should play bearing this in mind.

JustinaJ

@"Nilesh S" Thank you very much! I appreciate it!

emli1000

I remembered when I first had my professors write LOR for me. They all emailed them to me so when I got to this point I was a bit unsure of how to go about it. But after reading it I realized that once I listed their names/emails they would get a link to upload my LOR.

Nilesh S

Yeah I know what you mean. Moreover, a waiver does not necessarily mean that you don't get to see your letters... two of my referees voluntarily emailed me their references when I was applying to a my doctoral program. However, I had still waived my right to see their letters... this was purely voluntary on their part.

emli1000

It mainly that you do not ask them for it. But they can send them to you.

JustinaJ

@emil1000 yeah I was so confused. I hate that LSAC makes your recommender do the work. I feel it should be my responsibility to handle paperwork.

kendallM

Law schools don't like it when you have access to the LOR. My professor and one of my law firm supervisors have told me about this.

emli1000

@JustinaJ That's how I felt because I'm sure they have a ton on their plate and by asking them for a LOR is already adding more to it. & on top of that they have to go out of their way to do the rest just to submit their LOR for me. But I'm thankful nobody complained.

JustinaJ

@emil1000 exactly. I feel bad enough asking for the letter LOL now I have to have them submit it to a freakin link?!

Nilesh S

@JustinaJ and @emli1000 don't feel bad about it... one of their duties as a prof is to give you a reco and it is your right to get one from them... and as a TA who has actually written recos for undergrads, I can tell you they would be much happier writing one and uploading it to a link than writing one, printing 15 copies, signing and sealing then and handing them all back to you in sealed envelops with their sign across the flaps! Much less work for them!

JustinaJ

LOL true. @NileshS thank you

emli1000

I didn't think about it that way lol

goodbhaviour

Guys, this may be a dumb question but I am confused - do your profs only submit one LOR? And then you can choose for that letter to go to multiple schools? Or do they need to submit a LOR tailored specifically to each school ?

Alex

@goodbhaviour said:
Guys, this may be a dumb question but I am confused - do your profs only submit one LOR? And then you can choose for that letter to go to multiple schools? Or do they need to submit a LOR tailored specifically to each school ?

Yes, they can just submit one which you can send to multiple schools. They do not have to tailor one for each specific school.

goodbhaviour

@"Alex Divine" said:

@goodbhaviour said:
Guys, this may be a dumb question but I am confused - do your profs only submit one LOR? And then you can choose for that letter to go to multiple schools? Or do they need to submit a LOR tailored specifically to each school ?

Yes, they can just submit one which you can send to multiple schools. They do not have to tailor one for each specific school.

But is it more favourable/beneficial to ask them to write, say 5, each tailored to the specific school? Not sure what is common practice here sigh....

Alex

@goodbhaviour said:

@"Alex Divine" said:

@goodbhaviour said:
Guys, this may be a dumb question but I am confused - do your profs only submit one LOR? And then you can choose for that letter to go to multiple schools? Or do they need to submit a LOR tailored specifically to each school ?

Yes, they can just submit one which you can send to multiple schools. They do not have to tailor one for each specific school.

But is it more favourable/beneficial to ask them to write, say 5, each tailored to the specific school? Not sure what is common practice here sigh...

No, I don't think that's necessary and certainly not common practice. Perhaps if one of your profs is an alum of one of the law schools you are applying to you could have them mention that in a specific LOR.

Otherwise, I don't see how you can really tailor a LOR to a specific school in a way that's going to be beneficial. I also think you may risk getting 5 mediocre letters were you to ask and find a prof willing to do so.

Freddy_D

I agree with Alex (as usual). LORs don't necessarily help that much, BUT they can definitely hurt your app. Having a bunch of mediocre LORs is risky.

(Source: http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/the-curious-reality-of-letters-of-recommendation/)

TheMikey

waive your rights. it is theist preferred thing to do because it shows that the person writing the LOR is a credible person.

how would it look to a law school if you didn't waive your rights to a LOR because maybe you wanted to check it to make sure it was good to send? that's what they will most likely think and if you were focused on double checking the LOR then they will think that you might not fully trust your LOR writer enough to have you blindly send the letter. as long as you have someone write it that you somewhat trust won't screw you over, you should be fine.

tldr... just waive your rights ?