<p>So if I understand correctly, you have a right to inspect your Letters of Recommendation when you submit your application.</p>
<p>Has anyone here ever elected not to waive that right?</p>
<p>You do not have a right to read your letters of recommendation before you submit the application. </p>
<p>FERPA gives you the right the inspect your educational records. That means that you have the right to view your letters of recommendation after you matriculate and provided the university kept them on file.</p>
<p>Ah, thank you for clarifying that.</p>
<p>I read that wrong at first and thought your grad school was making you stop reading Lord of the Rings. I’m sitting here thinking, what school is that religious/ uptight/ I’m-not-sure? I mean, I’ve read some outlandish behavior expectation statements, but that would have been one for the gold medal.</p>
<p>Waive it.</p>
<p>The general feeling is that gradcoms want to know the letters are as candid as possible.</p>
<p>If you really want to know what your recommenders are saying, ask them for a copy.</p>
<p>LOL, Speakingez.</p>
<p>I waived mine. I don’t know what the circumstances would be to cause me to want to read it beforehand.</p>
<p>A lot of people don’t realize this, but not all “letters of recommendation” say good things about you. One of the faculty members im close with suggests asking along the lines of "would you feel comfortable writing me a good / positive letter of recommendation.</p>
<p>It seems kind of crazy that someone would agree to write one for you and then say bad things about you, but apparently it happens. This faculty member has been working at the university level for 20+ years and has seen this happen more than once.</p>
<p>I never saw UG recoms for grad school, but did see a grad school recommendation for internship. His was 3 pages. During the year I worked with him, once I was upset about my MO’s death. He wrote a whole paragraph about that. Though everything else was positive, that one PP would have ruined me. I got another letter ASAP.</p>
<p>My rm/mt worked with this man for years. She too had several PPs that told intimate struggles with her b/f. </p>
<p>When confronted, this prof said he felt compelled to reveal something negative about every applicant. I told him he was totally out of line and missing the point. His wife divorced him and he was let go of his position within a few years. He was naive, but I have always wondered how much harm he did to grad students.</p>
<p>Some people wonder why people with great experience and great numbers don’t get in, this sort of thing may have something to do with it.</p>
<p>And conversely this is the reason why people with low numbers get into top programs.</p>
<p>Bottom line, keep your relationship with your professor as professional as seems fit. I’m casual friends with most of mine, but I don’t reveal things about myself that I don’t think are appropriate (i.e., relationship problems, etc.).</p>
<p>It’s well within the rights of a professor to discuss these things if they affect your ability to produce good research. If a characteristic he or she notices of you is that you’re always preoccupied with personal matters, then their ability to consciously write a good letter for you will be dramatically weakened.</p>
<p>Short comment : Do whatever you feel right.</p>
<p>Long comment : I can say for 99.99% sure that this LoR issue is going to be a choking point in every possible academic application for foreseeable future, lets say 10-20 years ahead? Maybe more years ahead. I reserved the remaining 0.01% in case the whole application package or requirement changes in its landscape. UG application, Graduate application, Postdoc application, Faculty position application, Tenure application
.
Waiving your rights to see: This option serves good impression subconsciously to some because the letter is written as if you completely trust the recommenders and allow them to write whichever they feel worth mentioning, good or bad about you, in a way, reflecting your talents, personality, and attitude. The admission committee can then evaluate your application holistically. </p>
<p>Your rights to see: After all, its our own rights, mandated by FERPA. But if you choose this option, you recommender will notice before they write reference about you. They are allowed to write about you but somewhat limited (yes, depends on the personality of recommenders, or Professors) in their freedom of writing because of the knowing that you are going to read the recommendation once you got admitted. Some recommenders do not have any misgiving about writing bad recommendation, while some utilize subtle description of your weaknesses, or foibles. Others will skip the weak point, and appears taciturn. <a href=“http://www.orl.med.umich.edu/rehughes/sample_letter.pdf[/url]”>www.orl.med.umich.edu/rehughes/sample_letter.pdf</a></p>
<p>I wander from my point, why would the program accept students if recommendation is too bad, which means students cant get accepted, and never would have a chance to read the recommendation. Or admission committee realizes that a particular recommender (out of 3) seems pain in the a** at best or ___ (fill the bad word here) and take the student in and student can later read the recommendation?</p>
<p>If novels are based on real life experiences, fictions are never-heard-of life events, then reality is even more complicated and way too beyond our imagination. Professors are human. We are not going by books or straight line as in doing good works generating good data keep it professional maintain relationship get the good recommendation. What @Oyama stated is true and following that practice is more likely to have higher percentage of good recommendation though its not 100% because we are dealing with the realities. One of the Professors whom I maintained good relationship took me 6 months to write recommendations and handed me only after I finished all my applications. The reason is he is too busy. Luckily, I had managed to get another one. There are only 2 sentences here. But it can cost my entire application or simply put, my whole journey into graduate years ahead.</p>
<p>“A lot of people don’t realize this, but not all “letters of recommendation” say good things about you.”</p>
<p>I suppose it depends whom you are asking for recommendations and how well you know them. This is true. I asked for my letters in advance and I did begin asking, I thought tactfully, whether they would be able to write a favorable LoR for me at this time, or if they were too busy.</p>
<p>Since I know for a fact that my recommenders are not spiteful or mean people, I could be fairly sure that the letters would be favorable. Not certain, of course, but… how would it help if I didn’t waive my right? I would just see that it was a mediocre letter!</p>
<p>Definitely waived my right to read them.</p>
<p>When I was soliciting letters from my professors near the end of my UG degree one of them questioned my aspirations. However, he did say, “I’ll do what I can.”</p>
<p>Not exactly what I was looking.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I remain very positive about the other two. Needless to say, I took the first opportunity I saw to get a good recommendation from someone at my internship later on.</p>
<p>Assuming you know the people behind the degree, you should be able to tell if they are going to share any negative details. I certainly wouldn’t risk asking anyone who wasn’t enthusiastic about my goals.</p>