no letterhead on letter of recommendation ?!

[SchoolPsych_NYC]

I posted this in a psychology thread, but maybe you guys can help me better here!

 

I had assisted in developing a letter for one of my recommenders and was provided with an unofficial copy prior to his uploading. However, something told me that this person would just be uploading directly from microsoft word, no university letterhead or anything, just his signature. I emailed to thank him for uploading but also casually asked if it was printed on letterhead. This was his reply:

 

"Frankly letterheads are mostly a cosmetic element. We have provided numerous recommendation letters to other individuals who have been part of our project in the past and have not received any negative feedback about this. There is a process for authenticating your references which is very thorough.  In the end, you will be judged on substance so I would not dwell on it too much." 

 

I am uncomfortable with all of this, given that I know from experience and common sense, a letter of recommendation is only considered valid with a signature on official university, organization, or company letterhead. So I have emailed admissions to clarify, but just wanted to gauge an opinion on here, if anyone has also been in this kind of situation. I know some of you may say you didn't even get to see your letters and some things are better left unknown... sigh

 

[GeoDUDE!]

I think your professor is right,especially if it is electronic. I think it is super strange that you saw your letter beforehand. I have never seen one of my letters. 

 

There are clearly ways to legitimize a letter if they feel its inauthentic. 

[SchoolPsych_NYC]

I think your professor is right,especially if it is electronic. I think it is super strange that you saw your letter beforehand. I have never seen one of my letters. 

 

There are clearly ways to legitimize a letter if they feel its inauthentic. 

 

I'm sure there are ways to legitimize a letter if they are unsure of its authenticity, but I do not want to be in that kind of situation! I don't want my application red flagged because my internship supervisor thinks letterhead is just for aesthetic purposes! What a LAME excuse! 

 

I guess at this point, I just have to trust that it wont be an issue, but you would think it's common sense to put a recommendation letter on letterhead! A document is not official unless its on letterhead! Imagine having your doctor write you a prescription on a piece of loose leaf paper and you hand it to your pharmacist... oh but it has their signature so its legit, right?! WRONG. without the script including their license # and letterhead, I highly doubt the pharmacy would fill it. SAME GOES FOR MY LETTER. Sorry for the caps lol I am just very insulted by his defense.

[Taeyers]

When I was a full-time "teaching specialist", I wrote several letters of recommendation for students for both internal scholarships and external internships and programs. I never used letterhead because I was just a glorified TA and it never crossed my mind to try and figure out how to do that. No one ever contacted me to try to confirm the authenticity of my letter, and some of those students were granted the scholarship or internship they applied for. Take a deep breath, you're making a mountain out of a molehill.

 

Also, I bet that taking this so personally and trying to "correct" your recommenders will probably result in far more negative outcomes than just accepting this. 

Edited November 26, 2014 by Taeyers

[SchoolPsych_NYC]

Take a deep breath, you're making a mountain out of a molehill.

 

Trying to breathe! applying to grad school has been extremely stressful so I'll breathe when this is all over.. I'm sure most of TGC community will agree about the high anxiety of this process. Maybe its a molehill to you, but to me its my future and chance at a career. Really don't want to apply all over again... especially for situations out of my hands!

[Taeyers]

Trying to breathe! applying to grad school has been extremely stressful so I'll breathe when this is all over.. I'm sure most of TGC community will agree about the high anxiety of this process. Maybe its a molehill to you, but to me its my future and chance at a career. Really don't want to apply all over again... especially for situations out of my hands!

I completely agree that it's a stressful process, I was there myself only last year, and I was definitely a wreck about it. One of my recommenders was a week late with her letter, and another (the PI I had been working with for nearly 2 years) was almost a month late. I was still the department's first choice for admission (according to the DGS), and they gave me a 3 year fellowship I didn't even apply for.

 

The point is that most things don't matter nearly as much as we worry they do, I guarantee something as small as the presence or absence of letterhead will not make the difference between admission or rejection. Academics tend to be busy people who have much more important things to learn about you - things that will actually shed light on your qualifications and future success. Do try your best to brush this off and roll with the punches. You'll save yourself a lot of stress by choosing your battles. 

[TakeruK]

Don't worry about the letterhead, that's an outdated "requirement" from the old days where people had to snail mail LORs so the letterhead and signature is really the only way to know it came from the professor/university.

 

Now, the authentication is all electronic--when you submit the LOR request, they email the professor with a unique login/password/link so that they know the professor is the one writing your letter. Combined with using a university email address, it is all they really need. Some schools will ask the professor to simply copy and paste the text into a box on a web form. The prof is usually not expected to print the letter on letterhead and then sign it and then upload it!

 

Also, schools are way more lenient on profs not following their instructions than applicants. Profs can turn in LORs late and no one will care. After all, the profs that read your letter also have tons of other letters to write and submit as well, so they would all want the whole process to be as efficient as possible.

[thegraydude]

I concur with all the people here. My LORs are also in progress, and only one of my recommenders has used an official letterhead with his signature on it. He scanned the document and uploaded it. A real nice guy; he's a Canadian that I've been working for from the past year.

 

My two professors writing the LOR, on the other hand, won't bother with the letterhead stuff. As long as their email address is an affiliate organizational email address, you don't need to be worried. 

[Texan_Air]

I actually found out that this happened to one of my recommendations this morning. He wrote without a company letter head and I thought it was the ugliest looking letter in the world. He told me that he believes a company letterhead shouldn't be on a personal recommendation. To me it looks so ugly though, as he had no Dear Committee..., no signature, and horrible formatting. He wrote half a page so now all I think is that this is a bad recommendation that I will regret.

[TakeruK]

I actually found out that this happened to one of my recommendations this morning. He wrote without a company letter head and I thought it was the ugliest looking letter in the world. He told me that he believes a company letterhead shouldn't be on a personal recommendation. To me it looks so ugly though, as he had no Dear Committee..., no signature, and horrible formatting. He wrote half a page so now all I think is that this is a bad recommendation that I will regret.

 

I would not worry. None of those things matter. It makes complete sense that your recommender does not use company letterhead on a personal recommendation. Letters from non-academic sources will look different but this will not be the first nor the last "professional recommendation" that the admission committee will see.

 

However, if you are not happy with the content (nevermind the style or formatting), then perhaps you should ask a different person to write the remaining letters!

[SchoolPsych_NYC]

Don't worry about the letterhead, that's an outdated "requirement" from the old days where people had to snail mail LORs so the letterhead and signature is really the only way to know it came from the professor/university.

 

Now, the authentication is all electronic--when you submit the LOR request, they email the professor with a unique login/password/link so that they know the professor is the one writing your letter. Combined with using a university email address, it is all they really need. Some schools will ask the professor to simply copy and paste the text into a box on a web form. The prof is usually not expected to print the letter on letterhead and then sign it and then upload it!

 

Also, schools are way more lenient on profs not following their instructions than applicants. Profs can turn in LORs late and no one will care. After all, the profs that read your letter also have tons of other letters to write and submit as well, so they would all want the whole process to be as efficient as possible.

 

So funny how quickly things are becoming outdated! I am finding it very hard to agree here that letterhead means nothing in this context, or altogether. University email address or not, I still think that the letterhead makes the letter appear more professional. Anyone could forge a signature and submit a form! The thread on here about a student who was asked to create an email in his profs name and upload it himself-- its stuff like this that only reassures me the letterhead is what sets apart my layman document from an official letter. Moving on from all this... I am hoping for the best.

[shadowclaw]

I think the prescription analogy is very interesting. It's true that if I brought my prescription to the drug store, it better be on letterhead. Similarly, if my LOR writer was sending in a snail mail letter, letterhead would also be expected.

However, we now live in an age where these things can be don't electronically or over the phone. When I get a prescription, my doctor calls the drug store and provides them with the required information. I imagine some doctors go to a website to accomplish the same thing. Likewise, the modern LOR can be emailed or uploaded to a website. As others have mentioned, the writers provide their credentials in the form of university email addresses and passwords. We don't need letterhead because we live in a digital age and credentials are being evaluated much differently than they were even just 10 years ago.

[TakeruK]

So funny how quickly things are becoming outdated! I am finding it very hard to agree here that letterhead means nothing in this context, or altogether. University email address or not, I still think that the letterhead makes the letter appear more professional. Anyone could forge a signature and submit a form! The thread on here about a student who was asked to create an email in his profs name and upload it himself-- its stuff like this that only reassures me the letterhead is what sets apart my layman document from an official letter. Moving on from all this... I am hoping for the best.

 

Anyone can forge a letterhead too, especially with modern technology!

[SchoolPsych_NYC]

Anyone can forge a letterhead too, especially with modern technology!

 

This is true, and sad... guess I'm over it at this point. 

[prospecting]

Don't worry about it OP, you have bigger fish to fry

[SchoolPsych_NYC]

so...... I wrote to admissions last week as I was uncomfortable about how the letter was submitted and admissions allowed me to have my recommender re-upload the letter on letterhead. Just got the email confirmation that the letter was successfully re-uploaded! Guess letterhead is the preferred way to go! So glad to be able to move on from this and breathe a little bit easier