letter of ref, or just report?

[sickgirl]

hey, so i've been reading the McGill referee report, and it suggests that "you may also include a signed letter of reference." does anyone know if this really matters? are the letters read? is it detrimental not to have a letter, but just the report?

 

thanks!

[p0795195]

you better have the letters with it, i never heard of someone not including them

[justletmein]

ummm ....

 

one of my references read that last year and wasnt sure.

so he called the admissions office to ask and they told him he can sent just the form or just the letter or both.

 

so he just sent the form. I couldnt believe it. I worked for him for 2 years and he couldnt take half an hour to write me a letter.

 

talk about f'n lazy.

 

just tell your referees that it's MANDATORY to send a signed letter.

[AMmd]

ummm ....

 

one of my references read that last year and wasnt sure.

so he called the admissions office to ask and they told him he can sent just the form or just the letter or both.

 

so he just sent the form. I couldnt believe it. I worked for him for 2 years and he couldnt take half an hour to write me a letter.

 

talk about f'n lazy.

 

just tell your referees that it's MANDATORY to send a signed letter.

 

sorry to hear that!

did you at least get an interview?

[deedubya]

One of my refs didn't write a letter, which didn't make me all that happy either. I ended up getting a fourth reference to write a letter (without a report) after the deadline. I don't know whether that fourth ref made a significant impact on my application, but I did end up getting in.

 

But take a sec and put yourself in the AdCom's shoes... getting so many applications and reference letters, it really may not matter to them whether the reference's evaluation of the applicant is in the form of letter or a standardized report - as long as the ref gets his/her point across.

[joiningtherace]

ummm ....

 

one of my references read that last year and wasnt sure.

so he called the admissions office to ask and they told him he can sent just the form or just the letter or both.

 

so he just sent the form. I couldnt believe it. I worked for him for 2 years and he couldnt take half an hour to write me a letter.

 

talk about f'n lazy.

 

just tell your referees that it's MANDATORY to send a signed letter.

 

Didnt he need to write a letter for the others application anyways? unless u only applied to McGill..

[justletmein]

sorry to hear that!

did you at least get an interview?

 

No I didnt!!!

 

.. but according to the admissions website the letters are not considered until the interview so who knows....

 

 

and to address the above post yes I only applied to mcgill... a stupid last minute decision... hence why Im doing it all over again this year

[mchn2007]

Happened to me too...one of my refs only sent in a report so just a few days before the deadline I asked someone else to send in both a report and letter and she graciously did. I think sending just a report shows that the teacher doesn't have that much to say as to why you're an excellent candidate so to play it safe I would make sure they send a letter as well.

[Gavanshir]

Hello..I didn't want to make a new thread about this but hopefully someone will answer!

 

One: anybody know what would happen if I only sent in a referee report for 2 of my 3 letters of rec? My humanities prof has left the province and it would be hard to get in touch with her..

 

two: are the referee reports valid for as long as I want them to be? Can they be sent to interfolio so i can use them again if i apply to mcgill again next year? Or if I decide not to apply this cycle, can I get the reports and again send them to interfolio to use them next year?

 

Thanks.