Writng your own LOR

[arezuie]

Hello all,

 

Have any of you had the experience of writing your own LOR? One of my evaluators has asked that I write what I need the letter to say and he will sign it and send it through CASPA. I know that this practice is not uncommon, it had just never happened to me. I am not sure if this is a really bad thing or a really great thing. It is making me a little anxious. Any thoughts?

 

 

[cop to pa]

If you're anxious/ uncomfortable, get a new evaluator. Personally, i think this practice defeats the purpose.

[aimyhtixela]

Not for CASPA specifically but I did a modified version of this. I took an old letter that my LOR reference had written in the past and edited it to my liking and ultimately to my benefit. I thought it worked out well because I was able to make sure to mention qualities I wanted to highlight that were not mentioned by my other LORs (my references let me read the letters they wrote for me).

[JLM28]

Be careful....in CASPA's evaluation section under the FAQ's there is an explicit statement regarding the applicants filling out LORs. It is in the large yellow box....it says letters must be compiled and submitted by the evaluator only. I see a lot of people mentioning filling out their own letters on this forum and CASPA prohibits it it appears.

[UGoLong]

In the working world, this is not uncommon. The typical LOR writer doesn't necessarily know what you want or need, especially if they don't do it often. 

 

As I've mentioned in other posts, you can pick LOR writers who know things about various aspects of your academic, HCE, or work ethic. 

 

To avoid actually writing your own letter, you might present him or her with a bulleted list of attributes/accomplishments you'd like to see addressed and then let him or her write about them on their own.

[Allegro]

Something to keep in mind as well is that if you write your own letter, you can't "waive your right" to access it which is usually a big red flag to the schools reviewing  your letter. If you do waive your right saying you waive access to the letter (which is impossible if you wrote it) and the schools find out you wrote it, you can be in hot water.

[AliB]

Something to keep in mind as well is that if you write your own letter, you can't "waive your right" to access it which is usually a big red flag to the schools reviewing  your letter. If you do waive your right saying you waive access to the letter (which is impossible if you wrote it) and the schools find out you wrote it, you can be in hot water.

 

I'm not following your thought process.  Even if I "wrote my own letter", at my reference's request, the reference still has to do the submission (i.e., answer the questions, attest that they are who they say they are, etc., then upload the document).  I can certainly still waive my access to the letter from that point.  After all, I don't even know for sure that the reference used the exact doc I wrote.  

 

Unless I'm misunderstanding, the OP's question post, they have not been asked to misrepresent themselves and pretend to BE the reference, just to draft the letter portion.  

[Allegro]

I'm not following your thought process.  Even if I "wrote my own letter", at my reference's request, the reference still has to do the submission (i.e., answer the questions, attest that they are who they say they are, etc., then upload the document).  I can certainly still waive my access to the letter from that point.  After all, I don't even know for sure that the reference used the exact doc I wrote.  

 

Unless I'm misunderstanding, the OP's question post, they have not been asked to misrepresent themselves and pretend to BE the reference, just to draft the letter portion.  

 

From the OP's post, he was stating that the reference was asking him to "write his own letter" which the reference would then just "sign" indicating to me that there was a level of expectation that no changes would be made to the letter on behalf of the reference. Although I agree this is somewhat of a gray area (and that it is acceptable in some professional spheres), by signing that you waive your federal right to access - aka stating that you have not reviewed the reference's letter of recommendation when in reality you have penned the letter yourself - can be construed by schools as misrepresentation. There have been applicants who received code of conduct violation notices because schools found that they wrote the letter, even when the reference may have asked them to, because they waived their right to access which flags to schools that you were not involved in the letter. I'm not sure how that panned out for those applicants in the end, but it just seems like a way to unnecessarily muddy the waters surrounding your application. Even if the schools don't go that far as to consider it misrepresentation, you have to admit that the claim you haven't had "access" to the reference is disingenuous, as let's be honest - the profile info of the person, which is public knowledge, and the ratings they give really aren't what that waiver is referring to considering its a federal requirement regarding all educational letters of reference and the ratings grid/profile are more CASPA-specific aspects.

 

I know I wouldn't be comfortable asking for a reference from someone who didn't know me well enough or was not confident enough to write the letter themselves, and I wouldn't want to put myself in the awkward and uncomfortable position of a school asking me if I wrote my own letter and having to say I did, even if it wasn't a misrepresentation issue, because it would basically be saying I had helped undermine the point of having references in the first place. Just my two cents.

[IDCtoPA]

I think you are really reaching. You waive your right to access the letter once submitted to CASPA.  You are letting the letter writer know that you can not demand a copy of the letter from the school once it has been submitted. It has nothing ot do with whether or not you saw the letter before it was submitted. When I entered my application in CASPA I waived my right to access for all of my LORs. This indicated to the letter writers that they could be honest with CASPA and there is no way I could find out what they said after the fact. It just so happened that each of my letter writers chose to forward me a copy of what they submitted after it was submitted. When I saw the letters, I realized that none of them had spoken to my academic performance, which had made drastic improvement since my first attempt at college 30 years ago. At that point I chose to request an additional LOR from a professor and I specifically asked her to discuss my academic performance. Once again I waived my right to access the letter. CASPA notified her that I had requested a letter and that I had waived the right to see the letter. She submitted the letter to CASPA and then once again she chose to share the letter with me. The waiver of the right to see the letter is NOT and attestation that you never have and never will see the letter nor is it an attestation that you did not contribute to the letter. Now... Logging in to CASPA and entering a LOR under a false identity or under someone else's identity whether they told you to or not is fraud. But, that has nothing to do with the waiver of the right to see the LOR. Writing the letter and giving it to the reference who then logs in to CASPA and submits the letter as his own would be pretty difficult to pin as an Honor or Ethics violation for the student.

[AliB]

Good comments.  Thanks for clarifying your thought process.  I am not aware of any applicants that had issues with contributing to the content of their own reference letters, but I could certainly see it happening.  

 

I will add, however, that I can't imagine NOT waiving my right to view the recommendation as I wouldn't ASK someone to be a reference that I didn't have full confidence could speak to me and my ability and aptitude.  I'd have no reason to want to go back and review the letter after I've been accepted and enrolled!    

 

Of course, when I am the one asked for a reference, I have also asked to requestor to put a draft together that includes anything they are requesting I emphasize.  From there, I've made it my own.  I'm not signing my name to anything I don't consider accurate.  

 

While FERPA gives you the right to access your LORs AFTER you enroll (if you decline to waive that right), it doesn't really have anything to do with getting to read your letters before your recommenders send them.  That's between you and your recommender, and might be quite appropriate.  e.g., One of my references was not in the medical field at all, and asked me to review and edit what he'd written as he wanted to ensure that he used proper terminology etc.  I do not know how he rated me on the assessment questions that are part of the CASPA reference, but I do know what his letter said.  I am not 100% certain, but I think FERPA does cover rights to access the other parts of the application, including the CASPA specific ratings, though the reference letter waiver is specific to the letters(?).  I do concede that while I rephrased some of the letter's wording, I didn't write it top to bottom by any means!  He certainly had to prerogative to accept or reject my words as well.  

 

As for the OP's dilemma, I'd have to agree with UGoLong.  While I might organize some points and include some key attributes, or wording, that I would appreciate the recommender including, I wouldn't produce a finished draft that required nothing more than a signature.  There is nothing ambiguous about the intent and expectation that reference letters be from a recommender, and NOT the applicant.  

[Ktsterry]

With three of my four letters, I was sent copies and asked to proof them (cause I'm a grammar nazi with formal writing) and let the writers know if there was anything that I would like added. I don't feel that it violates any codes or is disingenuous at all. I think it just shows that your evaluators care enough to make sure that your letter is exactly what you want.

 

I've not been in the situation where I've been asked to write a LOR, but I know a ton of people who have done so. If it makes you feel THAT uncomfortable, then maybe try and think of a new reference. However, by the evaluator reading and signing their name they're stating that they agree with everything in the letter anyways. Maybe he/she wants to write you a letter but is a poor writer and doesn't want you to suffer for it. Maybe it's just a busy schedule thing. Either way, if that's what you were asked to do I'd just go ahead and do it. Like someone said ahead of me, it's very common practice nowadays.

 

Good luck!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk