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Does the electronic method of submitting the reference require scanning a hard copy of the letter to display the signature? Or can it be done straight from computer?

I ask because one of my references is sending his letter in from abroad and may not have easy access to a scanner.

I'm pretty sure that the LSAC scans the letter themselves. The instructions on LOR's usually say that the person doing the recommendation only needs to mail it in. Once the LSAC scans it and puts it on your file, you'll have an electronic version of it that you can have sent to schools.
But if you're really wondering, you should call them just to be sure. The rules might be different for international recommendations.

ACanadian wrote:Does the electronic method of submitting the reference require scanning a hard copy of the letter to display the signature? Or can it be done straight from computer?

I ask because one of my references is sending his letter in from abroad and may not have easy access to a scanner.

Yes, your recommender must sign the LOR. The easiest way to do that is to have toe recommender print out a copy of the LOR, sign it, and then scan it back into the computer to upload to LSAC. If that's not possible, your recommender can create a digital signature that he can just drag into the Word Document. He can do this in MS Paint. Just have him write out his signature as accurately as possible using one of the medium-thickness draw tools and save it as a .png file. When the image is inserted into the Word Document, select it, re-size it appropriately, hit the formatting tab, and make sure it's set to 'behind text' (that'll let him move it into position easier). That would be work too. The point is that the letter must be signed before it is uploaded to LSAC or your recommender will have to re-do it.

macnut2012 wrote:I'm pretty sure that the LSAC scans the letter themselves. The instructions on LOR's usually say that the person doing the recommendation only needs to mail it in. Once the LSAC scans it and puts it on your file, you'll have an electronic version of it that you can have sent to schools.
But if you're really wondering, you should call them just to be sure. The rules might be different for international recommendations.

Dude, you need to read the questions before giving advice.

North wrote: Yes, your recommender must sign the LOR. The easiest way to do that is to have toe recommender print out a copy of the LOR, sign it, and then scan it back into the computer to upload to LSAC. If that's not possible, your recommender can create a digital signature that he can just drag into the Word Document. He can do this in MS Paint. Just have him write out his signature as accurately as possible using one of the medium-thickness draw tools and save it as a .png file. When the image is inserted into the Word Document, select it, re-size it appropriately, hit the formatting tab, and make sure it's set to 'behind text' (that'll let him move it into position easier). That would be work too. The point is that the letter must be signed before it is uploaded to LSAC or your recommender will have to re-do it.

Thank you! I have passed along this information to my recommender

ACanadian wrote:

North wrote: Yes, your recommender must sign the LOR. The easiest way to do that is to have toe recommender print out a copy of the LOR, sign it, and then scan it back into the computer to upload to LSAC. If that's not possible, your recommender can create a digital signature that he can just drag into the Word Document. He can do this in MS Paint. Just have him write out his signature as accurately as possible using one of the medium-thickness draw tools and save it as a .png file. When the image is inserted into the Word Document, select it, re-size it appropriately, hit the formatting tab, and make sure it's set to 'behind text' (that'll let him move it into position easier). That would be work too. The point is that the letter must be signed before it is uploaded to LSAC or your recommender will have to re-do it.

Thank you! I have passed along this information to my recommender

No problem, let me know if your guy has any trouble doing that in Paint/Word.