Letter Service Online

Getting Letters

You should ask for recommendations from people who can write a credible and supportive statement regarding your qualifications for admission or educational employment. It is important that the letter writer knows you well; thinks well of you, and is willing to write a thoughtful appraisal of your qualifications. Many letters will be from professors, instructors, employers, or graduate student instructors (GSI), but anyone can submit letters on your behalf.

What to give your writer

Once your writer agrees to write a letter for you, make sure you provide them with these items:

A waiver statement – you need to complete this form and forward it to your writer. Each letter needs to arrive at our office with its respective waiver statement. Your name on the waiver must be consistent with the name you have on your file.
A Letter Form (with or without Ranking Grid). This form can be printed from your online account along with waiver statement.
An envelope with a stamp, addressed to:
Career Center
Letter Service
2111 Bancroft Way, 2nd floor
Berkeley, CA 94720-4350
A guideline - a printable version of basic guidelines is available. If you want your writer to include specific information such as your date of birth, or AAMC ID#, make sure you provide this information as well as what type letter you are requesting (med school/ grad school/general/...)

What to tell your writer

Always express your appreciation for their time and help. Provide a deadline to send in the letter; 1-2 months lead time is reasonable. Let them know that they have a choice between using our Letter Forms and their own professional letterhead. Most importantly, provide them with a self-addressed envelope and ask them to do the following when they send their letter to our office:

Sign the letter in black or blue ink. Light colored inks do not reproduce well.
Place the letter and the waiver statement together in one envelope.
Seal the envelope and sign across the flap.
Send it in via USPS or campus mail. Letter may be hand delivered, however the letter and waiver must remain in the original signed and sealed envelope.

What you need to know

The waiver statement and Letter Form (or your writer's letterhead) are used to replace specific recommendation forms and waivers distributed by many educational institutions, with some exceptions.

The waiver statement, that indicates whether you want the recommendation to be confidential or not, must be filled out completely and signed by you, not your writer. We do use the information on this form to identify you from other clients with identical names, which is why we also ask that you fill in your email address and last four digits of your SS# on the waiver Statement. Once you have designated the confidentiality status for a letter, you cannot change its status.

The Letter Service accepts only letters not addressed to specific schools or programs. We strongly recommend candidates for professional and graduate school maintain no more than three to five letters in their file. Admission officials indicate that two or three letters are sufficient, and that the quality of letters is more important than the quantity of letters. If you are a medical school candidate, at least one recommendation should be obtained from a science faculty member. Please feel free to consult with a career counselor regarding your situation. If you are a candidate for academic employment, you should follow the advice of your department advisors regarding the number of letters needed for your academic specialty.

If you have an approved matching form, you may submit it to the Letter Service and it will be posted to your online list of letters. This will allow you to know that we received your form and select it when making a request. The matching forms must be received before making a request to mail letters to institutions that require these forms. More on matching forms later.

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