Who should LORs be addressed to?

[Safferz]

Silly question I know, but I was asked by one of my professors and I'm not sure what to tell him (he should know better than I do!). To the department? To the admissions committee? Has anyone here actually seen a LOR?

[ktel]

To Whom It May Concern? I seem to recall that's what my references put

[rising_star]

To the person in charge of graduate admissions in the department. Often this is the DGS.

[runonsentence]

Just to clarify, when you ask to whom it should be "addressed," are you asking who should be addressed in the opening salutation of the letter itself? Or you asking what goes on the outside of the envelope?

To answer the first question: My letter writers either wrote "Dear Colleagues" or didn't include an opening salutation. The answer to your second question is usually on the website, but the DGS is the safest fallback if it's not expressly indicated.

[Safferz]

Just to clarify, when you ask to whom it should be "addressed," are you asking who should be addressed in the opening salutation of the letter itself? Or you asking what goes on the outside of the envelope?

To answer the first question: My letter writers either wrote "Dear Colleagues" or didn't include an opening salutation. The answer to your second question is usually on the website, but the DGS is the safest fallback if it's not expressly indicated.

I was asking about the opening salutation, since all of my letters will be uploaded electronically.

Thanks everyone!