<p>I mean, it's possible for you to write your own rec and have your teacher sign it (but not necessarily allowed, I guess), so is it possible to do this?</p>
<p>I’ve seen that happen on House but I’ve never seen it happen in real life. Then again I don’t go to an Ivy League/live in an insanely competitive medical world, so I’m not sure what people at the very top do.</p>
<p>About your other question - usually you’re not allowed to look at your recommendation, but I had two teachers in high school who “let” me read mine - I chose not to because I thought it was weird…</p>
<p>All the teachers I asked for LORs gave me the letters to read over, suggest anything else I would want mentioned, and send to the colleges myself. It depends on the teacher.</p>
<p>^^^
If I were part of a college adcom, I would be skeptical of any letters not officially sent by the individual who wrote them.</p>
<p>When I was doing grad school admissions, any letters of recommendation that came as part of the student’s application were marked as such and given less weight than letters that came separately and directly from the letter-writer.</p>
<p>If you look at the standard recommendation forms, there is a place where you can sign to waive your rights to read the recommendation. Some guidance counselors will pressure you to sign away this right. Some people will maintain that you should never sign away this right. Some people will encourage you to make the decision on a case-by-case basis.</p>
<p>Many, but certainly not all, teachers will show you their letter so that you can make any corrections. Others will give you a copy for your personal files. But, if you waive your right of access to the letters they don’t have to tell you anything about the letter’s contents.</p>
<p>There are any number of teachers who will ask students to give them a rough draft to start with. Again, this is so they can get their facts straight when they write the final version. I’ve known several graduate school candidates who actually wrote the final letters of recommendation themselves because their professors were too busy (shameful, but true) or (in the case of international students) did not read and write English well enough themselves to be able to compose an appropriate letter.</p>
<p>If you include letters of recommendation in an application package that you mail to the school, each of the letters should be in a separate, sealed envelope, and you should have the recommender sign across the seal of the envelope (after it is sealed) in such a way that if the envelope were to be opened, the signature would be damaged.</p>
<p>Why would anyone want you to waive away your rights to see the letter? Are there some teachers who won’t write unless you do that?</p>
<p>“If you include letters of recommendation in an application package that you mail to the school, each of the letters should be in a separate, sealed envelope, and you should have the recommender sign across the seal of the envelope (after it is sealed) in such a way that if the envelope were to be opened, the signature would be damaged.”</p>
<p>Yes - I did forget to clarify this point. If letters arrived as indicated above, that was fine. It was the letters (or worse - COPIES of letters…and even worse - copies of letters addressed to a different university!) that arrived, without envelopes, as part of the application package that were “iffy.”</p>
<p>“Why would anyone want you to waive away your rights to see the letter? Are there some teachers who won’t write unless you do that?”</p>
<p>Some guidance counselors believe that some admissions officers will believe that teachers who write letters for students who haven’t waived their rights will be afraid to say anything bad about the student. In other words, these guidance officers think that the admissions officers think that the teachers are a bunch of weenies.</p>
<p>Some guidance counselors don’t want parents reading their kids’ letters and then comparing them to other kids’ letters and then whining “Why did Ms. X write such a nice letter for that other kid and such a bad one for mine?” Having met a few of these whiny nit-wit parents in my day, I can sympathize with the counselors, but I still don’t like them acting like a bunch of weenies.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t believe in waiving this right. If a recommender can’t tell me his/her honest opinion in person, I don’t want him/her writing any letter whether good, bad, or indifferent for me. In other words, I’m striking whatever blows I can to end weenie-dom in my day.</p>
<p>But then, I’m just cranky. Your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>Waiving your rights doesn’t mean that a teacher cannot show you the letter or that you cannot read it. It simply means that you cannot demand to see the letter if the teacher or college says no.</p>
<p>It really depends on the teacher.</p>
<p>The teachers who I asked for recs from did not let me read the letters. I gave them each 9 addressed envelopes + stamps (I applied to 9 colleges), and they put them in the envelopes when they were done, and signed the flap.</p>
<p>I know some other teachers have allowed their students to read their letter. And one teacher who asked the student to write the rec, then he would read it and sign it if he thought it was fine.</p>