Third party LOR services or individual forms

[benedicite]

Has anyone made successful use of a third party service for letters of recommendation?

I'm a little worried about having my professors submit 12 different recommendation forms. Not that my referees are unreliable, but that's a lot of e-mails and links and forms to keep track of. What if spam filters pick them up? But I'm also not sure if there are any third party services that actually work well.

[AquaBear]

I'm utilizing a letter service my university offers through the career center. The letter provided by the professor is probably general, and I can send it out myself (sealed, of course) to any number of schools by paying some flat rate per letter. I think I'll do that for most programs, and have my strongest recommender send slightly more personalized letters for a few programs.

[kaykaykay]

Often the schools have their own forms that the recommenders have to submit so I do not see how the third party service is feasible. Anyway, recommenders tend to write pretty much the same letter so it does not seem to be a problem for them to send it over and over again. Also at the beginning of the season you can send them an email with all the schools you are applying for so it is easy for them to keep track of the recommendations. I was very self conscious about the entire process but my recommenders seemed to know it and take it as normal.

[Eigen]

Services like Interfolio are common for job applications in academia, I've never heard of them being used for grad school applications.

Mostly, as has been mentioned, many schools have unique forms that have to be filled out, rather than a general letter of recommendation.

[benedicite]

Thanks for the replies.

I agree about not using a common service. Moving forward.

[mostlytoasty]

One of my recommenders is asking if it is *possible* for me to set up Interfolio for my PhD apps. Is there a nice way for me to say no to this request? Or do I owe it to them to set it up? One of my schools specifically said that letters that go through these 3rd parties are usually more general and less persuasive... so I am guessing this might be true for many departments. I would also like to try to save whatever fees I can.