Waiving Right to See LORs Forum

[Intersect2.0]

Are there compelling reasons to waive or not waive your right to see the LORs for your applications? The Yale law admissions blog, in discussing a hypothetical candidate, says that he "wisely" waived this right. What is the rationale for that?

[KG_CalGuy]

If you don't wave your right, they assume that you saw your LOR before you turned it in and, therefore, that your recommenders were not candid. They want the most honest LOR possible, even if that means your recommender secretly bashed you.

[Bert]

CalGuy, well written.

[Anonymous Loser]

Waiver merely facilitates FERPA compliance. It's a non-issue.

[OmbreGracieuse]

If you don't wave your right, they assume that you saw your LOR before you turned it in and, therefore, that your recommenders were not candid. They want the most honest LOR possible, even if that means your recommender secretly bashed you.

At the risk of sounding not-candid, what if a LOR writer wants to see the other LORs that way they can balance those with anyone that was not said but they feel should be? Don't some LOR writers write their letters with the students?

[kalvano]

I just asked my recommenders to email me a copy for my files. Not a one had a single objection.

[qualster]

Are there compelling reasons to waive or not waive your right to see the LORs for your applications? The Yale law admissions blog, in discussing a hypothetical candidate, says that he "wisely" waived this right. What is the rationale for that?

I didn't waive, I applied late, and my cycle went according to LSN.

[PDaddy]

Are there compelling reasons to waive or not waive your right to see the LORs for your applications? The Yale law admissions blog, in discussing a hypothetical candidate, says that he "wisely" waived this right. What is the rationale for that?

Besides giving tha adcoms more confidence in the contents of the letters, waiving the right to see them lets the committee know how confident the applicant is that he/she performed well, and that he a good member of his school or workplace all around. Any apprehension by the applicant - even when the LOR's are stellar - gives the adcoms pause b/c they wonder what might have been in the applicant's background that would cause him/her to worry. And they assume that they will never know about it.

[BaiAilian2013]

It's traditional, courteous, standard procedure, just like it's courteous procedure for a professor to wiggle out of writing an LOR if s/he feels s/he can't write an unequivocally positive one. Not waiving your right to see it, as other posters have said, is certainly not the kiss of death (although it might make some more traditional professors slightly uncomfortable). However, the bigger issue is that, if you want to see your LORs out of anything but pure, idle curiosity, you picked the wrong recommenders.

[Panther7]

I just asked my recommenders to email me a copy for my files. Not a one had a single objection.

I had one object, but he had written LOR's for me before and had shown them to me, so I wasn't worried.

[jerzgrl630]

I didn't waive my right one one, frankly I accidentally mailed the form to my recommender and I don't think I signed it (smooth move, I know). He never said anything, and I never read the letter. I don't think it affected my cycle.

Ironically, I did waive my right with the other two recommenders and one of them asked me to read the LOR before it went out. I didn't change anything, it seems pretty obvious when an LOR is contrived and when one is genuine. I'd love to read my other LORs, but it's really just because I'm interested to see what they wrote. On a bad day, it's nice to feel loved!

I'm really not sure that adcomms read into the waiving so much, but I'm willing to be wrong. I agree with the above posters that if you feel the need to see the LOR for any reason other than pure curiosity, you have a lot of problems.

[OmbreGracieuse]

I'm really not sure that adcomms read into the waiving so much, but I'm willing to be wrong. I agree with the above posters that if you feel the need to see the LOR for any reason other than pure curiosity, you have a lot of problems.

That's what mine is (curiosity). I am dying to know what my professors really think of me! ><

My director's LOR got me into a fabulous internship though and I didn't read that one, so it couldn't have been TOO bad or else they'd have said no.