Writing your own LOR?

Comments

• AChris1210 Alum Member

  October 2017 107 karma

  Thanks! I also have to write one for an old boss, so this is perfect.
• 1 Like

  samantha.ashley92 Alum Member

  November 2017 edited November 2017 1777 karma

  I would be EXTREMELY careful doing this. The LSAC explicitly states that the" submission of an altered, nonauthentic, or unauthorized letter of recommendation" constitutes misconduct. Writing your own letter and having it approved by someone else is considered "nonauthentic". Admissions committees will compare your writing style from your LSAT and application to your LORs. If it seems similar, it will raise a red flag. At the worse, it gets reported to the LSAC and every school you apply to.
• OlamHafuch Alum Member

  November 2017 2326 karma

  @"samantha.ashley92" said:
  Writing your own letter and having it approved by someone else is considered "nonauthentic".

  Are you sure this is true. In some circles, It's pretty standard to ask someone to write his own letter first.
• 2 Likes

  LCMama2017 Alum Member

  November 2017 2134 karma

  @"samantha.ashley92" said:
  I would be EXTREMELY careful doing this. The LSAC explicitly states that the" submission of an altered, nonauthentic, or unauthorized letter of recommendation" constitutes misconduct. Writing your own letter and having it approved by someone else is considered "nonauthentic". Admissions committees will compare your writing style from your LSAT and application to your LORs. If it seems similar, it will raise a red flag. At the worse, it gets reported to the LSAC and every school you apply to.

  Sheesh - talk about fear mongering. Yes, I hear you dude but I don't have a choice. Plus this manager just wants me to start it off - he will add his own language to it and I would bet he will prob change it up as well. I'm sure there are others who do write their own letters and just have the manager/teacher sign it but what are they supposed to do? We don't live in a perfect world.
• 2 Likes

  Seeking Perfection Alum Member

  November 2017 4428 karma

  @LCMama2017 said:

  @"samantha.ashley92" said:
  I would be EXTREMELY careful doing this. The LSAC explicitly states that the" submission of an altered, nonauthentic, or unauthorized letter of recommendation" constitutes misconduct. Writing your own letter and having it approved by someone else is considered "nonauthentic". Admissions committees will compare your writing style from your LSAT and application to your LORs. If it seems similar, it will raise a red flag. At the worse, it gets reported to the LSAC and every school you apply to.

  Sheesh - talk about fear mongering. Yes, I hear you dude but I don't have a choice. Plus this manager just wants me to start it off - he will add his own language to it and I would bet he will prob change it up as well. I'm sure there are others who do write their own letters and just have the manager/teacher sign it but what are they supposed to do? We don't live in a perfect world.

  No, the world is not perfect, but it does have enough people to find two who are willing to write letters of rec for you in their own words.

  I'm sure that there are times that exist when all of us will find our sense of ethics strained. I don't think finding a recommender ought to be one.

  Practically speaking, if you vary the voice and word choice it will be virtually impossible to detect such a forged letter of rec, but where is the tremendous gain which makes this ethical violation worthwhile? You can't write yourself a great letter. The recommender will read it and might consider you arrogant and write their own letter or change it if there is too much praise. So you are sacraficing a little bit of your integrity for an average letter of rec which you could get from someone else anyway.

  How could this be worthwhile?
• 1 Like

  Leah M B Alum Member ⭐

  November 2017 edited November 2017 8392 karma

  I know that it is indeed common practice to write your own letter in a lot of situations, but I have also seen it explicitly cautioned against for law school applicants. If a school detects that you wrote it yourself, they can report it to LSAC which could be a very serious situation.

  Here's a TLS thread where they debate it and it sounds like most folks really don't think you should. It also sounds like when you write it yourself, it's likely not to be as strong of a letter. If there's any way at least to have someone else write it on behalf of your recommender, that would be a step up. (An assistant? A helpful co-worker?)

  http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=127028
• samantha.ashley92 Alum Member

  November 2017 1777 karma

  @LCMama2017 @uhinberg I have read that it's acceptable to write a draft and have your recommender rephrase it into his/her own words. I also don't think it's standard to write your own letter, although I don't know who you've talked to about this. But either way, it seems like a very high risk to write your own. As @"Seeking Perfection" said, is it really worth it?
• Trust But Verify Alum Member

  November 2017 432 karma

  I'd be a little surprised (maybe even impressed) if LSAC had the time and energy to cross reference a LOR with a LSAT writing sample.
• Paul Caint Alum Member ⭐

  November 2017 3521 karma

  I feel like they can't know...but that doesn't make it right. It really sucks a recommender wouldn't write the letter themselves...
• OlamHafuch Alum Member

  November 2017 2326 karma

  @"Paul Caint" said:
  I feel like they can't know...but that doesn't make it right. It really sucks a recommender wouldn't write the letter themselves...

  It happens far more often than you'd think. People are pressed for time, and they want at least a rough draft to work with, which gives them some sort of structure. Usually, they'll tweak it to their liking.