Do you wish to waive your right to examine this letter of recommendation? (BAD TO SAY NO?)

[mutualist007]

Is it bad to say to NO to waiving the right to see recommendations? I've already completed 3 anthropology applications and for those I agreed to waive the right to see them. I mostly did it out of courtesy, but it may be false courtesy and fear. I can't help but feel curious and I really want to exercise my freedom and freedom of access to information. No worries; just curiosity I suppose and maybe the desire for a change.

So am I making a mistake or possibly offending honor by claiming my right to see the LOR?

Do you wish to waive your right to examine this letter of recommendation?*

Yes

NoUnder the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, students have access to their education record, including letters of recommendation. However, students may waive their right to see letters of evaluation, in which case the letters will be held in confidence.

Edited January 29, 2011 by mutualist007

[bsol]

In my opinion, you should absolutly always waive your right to view the letter of recommendation.

Also, there is a small caveat here. Even if you do not waive your right, most schools will only allow you to view the letters AFTER you gain acceptance. If you do not get in, they can deny you from seeing the letters even if you did not waive your right.

I think not waiving your right would raise some eyebrows. Even so, its a very minor thing I would imagine.

[newms]

Agreed that the best thing to do is to waive your right. Some profs might not appreciate that you retained your right to see their letter. Some adcomms might frown on it also. There is very little to gain by retaining your rights to see the letter, because as bsol said, you only get to see the letter if the school accepts you.

[Bukharan]

I absolutely would waive your right.

It is matter of respect to your professors.

[Vacuum]

Your reference might choose to not write you a recommendation once they see you haven't waived your rights. I'd definitely waive them (and did). I would hope that if your reference was going to write you a crappy letter, they would have just opted out of it all together from the get go! I think you just need to have a little faith in them!

[Thanks4Downvoting]

Waive it. You want your app to stand out from the rest for all the right reasons.

[Rustin]

I agree with all of the above.

If it is that big of an issue, I would have a conversation with your professors about the letters. There are ways to inquire about the quality of the letter that don't scream "I have no faith in you" besides checking the box saying you don't waive your right, especially without warning them first.

[fuzzylogician]

The general wisdom is that a LoR is considered more reliable if you waive your right to see it, because it shows that you are confident in the writer's opinion of you, and the writer can feel free to write whatever she feels is most accurate without worrying about you seeing it later. There have been debates on this board in the past about the soundness of this logic (and I agree that it doesn't make that much sense) but some professors may still give more weight to confidential letters, regardless of how much sense it makes. It's important to know that even if you don't waive your right to see the letter, according to FERPA you can only request access to your file at the university that you are registered at, so you won't be able to see your letters for schools that reject you anyway, only your letters for the school whose offer you accepted. So, it's not a good way to find out if a letter was damaging and caused you to be rejected, and if you're accepted I think it's a safe bet that the letter was at least decent. Bottom line: sign the waiver, there's nothing to gain from not doing so, and potentially there is something to lose.

[mutualist007]

Hello again and thanks for the advice! I will go with the overwhelming consensus here and waive the right to see the LOR that I would most likely not see anyway!

What was I thinking???

I guess it's back to waiting for results!

Good luck in your endeavors!

[history_PhD]

Obviously late to the game, but one of my professors mentioned, in passing, that he and other professors refuse to write letters if applicants don't waive their right.

[neshmi]

I always waive my rights to such documents. A professor would either not write or withhold information. My only regret is not to see the nice things they would say! I've had one professor say he wrote a really nice one, and the POI mention that that same professor wrote a really nice one. Apparently, I won't get to see it! Ah well.

[Creating a great day.]

I am almost finished with my application to the UC Davis post grad school in education. I chose to NOT waive my right to see reference letters. What's with the fear I've read from other posters? And where do professors come off threatening to not write a letter if the right to see it isn't waived? Maybe my decision is based on my age - I'm 60 - and maybe it's because my references are not from professors. If I ask someone to write a letter, basically in support of me, I would only do so if I believed they valued my skills and talents, otherwise, why would I want them to say anything? If anyone is still wondering whether or not they should waive this right, have courage. If ANYONE threatens to not write a reference, because you might read it, then please do yourself a huge favor and ask someone else!

[qbtacoma]

I am almost finished with my application to the UC Davis post grad school in education. I chose to NOT waive my right to see reference letters. What's with the fear I've read from other posters? And where do professors come off threatening to not write a letter if the right to see it isn't waived? Maybe my decision is based on my age - I'm 60 - and maybe it's because my references are not from professors. If I ask someone to write a letter, basically in support of me, I would only do so if I believed they valued my skills and talents, otherwise, why would I want them to say anything? If anyone is still wondering whether or not they should waive this right, have courage. If ANYONE threatens to not write a reference, because you might read it, then please do yourself a huge favor and ask someone else!

I chose to waive my recommendations because there are only two real reasons to read them: 1) ego-boosting, and 2) surveillance. As gratifying as the ego-boosting would be, that's not enough to overcome the stigma of the second reason. Adcomms have no way to know if I am person with reason 1 or 2.

Professors who refuse to write letters to people who don't waive their right to read them are probably protecting themselves from drama later on. Some people can't handle criticism of any sort, and the high stakes of application season can make even sane people a little crazy. Down the road, they probably don't want to see a former student (now colleague) who has been nursing a grudge all those years, especially if the professor wrote something about that person's personality (e.g., good scholar but has boundary issues, etc). I'd like to think that people with Ph.Ds are more mature than the general population, but this is not the case.

Adcomms are aware of this and know that professors might not therefore be open with the letters, thus eliminating the letter's usefulness.

[Vacuum]

I think this more applies to Profs writing the letters than employers and those types of references. My employer didn't show me the reference but I trust the quality, so I don't feel the need to have to read it. Also, some profs may be concerned of you copying that letter and sending it around to other schools like it came from them. Who knows why some choose to not write it if you can see it, but I'd rather just not take the risk and have to find someone else to be a reference.

[pawqara]

One of my writers send me her letter and told me "excellent applicants as yourself should be able to see their LoR". But I did waive my right to see them during the application.

[Herbie]

Say "Yes."

Unread letters of rec are held in higher esteem. Not only that, but it's out of respect for your professors. Imagine what reading the LOR has the potential to do if you disagree or criticize who you personally decided to write on your behalf?

Edit* on the flipside, I'd love to read mine. But if not reading them makes them more trustworthy, I don't care.

Edited February 26, 2011 by Chulianne

[smarmie]

The chair of my department wrote a LoR for me and advised me to waive my right to examine the letter because A) professors will be more forthcoming if they know you will not be reading their letters and adcomms tend to be suspicious of students that are not confident enough in their recommended to waive their right to review the letter.

After all of my applications had been submitted he sent me his letter of recommendation anyway. I have to say, the ego boost WAS nice!!

[chaospaladin]

Some professors may choose not to write a letter of recommendation for you if you do not waive your right.

[whirlpool4]

This is odd to me because all of my recommenders sent me a copy to read over and asked if they were okay. I have said "no" on all my apps so far, BUT I have not submitted them. It wasn't my fault or my credit that I saw my own letters, so should I have put "yes"? It doesn't really matter to me personally - I had full faith in my recommenders from the start so it's not like I annoyed them to the point that they just let me look at it.

[ktel]

This is odd to me because all of my recommenders sent me a copy to read over and asked if they were okay. I have said "no" on all my apps so far, BUT I have not submitted them. It wasn't my fault or my credit that I saw my own letters, so should I have put "yes"? It doesn't really matter to me personally - I had full faith in my recommenders from the start so it's not like I annoyed them to the point that they just let me look at it.

Just because you waive your right to see them, doesn't mean you're not allowed to see them. You're waiving your right to look at them in your file at that school. If the professor who writes the letter for you chooses to show the letter to you, that doesn't affect waiving your right to see them in your file.