I have become aware of some problems with letters of recommendations.
In this message I describe these problems, and I ask for input as to
whether any of you have also experienced the problem, and/or if you
have any solutions beyond what I recommend. This is fairly long, so if
you don't care about this issue, read no more.
The primary cause of the problem is letters of recommendation placed in
sealed envelopes, signed across the seal, then given to the student.
The idea is that the student collects all application materials and
submits the total application
in one packet rather than having things dribble in to the recipient
over a long time period.
This practice is occurring more and more with graduate schools, medical
and other professional schools, and occasionally with employers. I
will collectively refer to these schools, etc. as "the recipient."
Upon receiving a recommendation in a sealed envelope, I think the
recipient assumes one or both of two things. (1) The letter has not
been altered. (2) The letter is confidential and the writer felt free
to be frank.
Because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 it may
be that no referee feels free to be frank anymore. But in many cases
when I have written recommendations, the sealed envelope has included a
waiver statement signed by the student. In those cases I think the
recipient is clearly assuming point (2).
At this point I believe the sealed and signed envelope might achieve
point (1) above, but I think it no longer upholds point (2). Worse, I
think this practice allows students to "filter" their letters of
recommendation.
Here's how it works. This information comes from "the student
grapevine."
(a) Decide the places where you are applying and get application
materials from them.
(b) Include an extra "dummy" place from which you get materials, but
you have no intention of applying there.
(c) Seek letters of recommendation in sealed envelopes from as many
professors as you can get.
(d) Open the dummy letters. Assume each professor wrote the same or
similar letter to each place.
(e) Eliminate any bad letters and/or choose the three or four best, and
send only those good ones to the "real" places where you are applying.
I am reasonably sure this happened a couple times last year. Perhaps
it happened every time and I only noticed two of them. In each case I
got a similar story from the student. It went something like this:
Edmiston: "You've told me about your offers from MSU and IU, but I
haven't heard what happened at OSU.
Student: "Oh, I decided not to apply at OSU after all."
What? I gave the student a sealed copy of a letter intended for OSU,
and the student now says he did not apply there. But he did not give
back the unopened letter. Am I to assume he burned it without reading
it? I assume not.
I repeat that this happened twice last year (different students).
Worse, this year a student asked for the sealed envelope, but also
asked for her own copy of the letter. I asked her why; she said "for
my records." I told her that if the recipient knew it was not
confidential, that might erode a positive letter. She said she would
take her chances.
I think she was not taking any chances. I think she had no intention
of sending my letter if it did not please her. I'm sorry, but I don't
have time to play that game. It takes me more than an hour to write a
good, accurate letter of recommendation. Once I've done that, I expect
the recipient to get it.
I did oblige the student by giving her a copy, but I also indicated as
much on the letter. At the bottom, in the CC: location I indicated
that a copy was given to the student at the student's request. I think
this is a minimum requirement for us... that is, if we know the student
has access to the letter, we MUST tell the recipient. If that all
occurs above the table, I can live with it. But I cannot live with
this happening behind the recipient's back, and I certainly cannot live
with spending time writing letters that are going to get filtered.
That's a real abuse of professor/student relationship and an abuse of
my time.
I think the only way to stop this is to refuse to write letters unless
I mail them myself. Anybody else have other ideas?
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D. Phone/voice-mail: 419-358-3270
Professor of Chemistry & Physics FAX: 419-358-3323
Chairman, Science Department E-Mail edmiston@bluffton.edu
Bluffton College
280 West College Avenue
Bluffton, OH 45817