Interfolio

[Mazowszanka315]

I am debating about using Interfolio for my LOR rather than having my letter writers mail the letters to each school. Have people had good results by using the company?

Thanks

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[DiverDoc]

I opened an account a couple of months ago and have contacted 3 individuals about my LOR from them. I am very pleased with interfolio at this point, its SO EASY. Plus, its nice to just give your letter writers that instruction page with the code, its fool proof ! I recommend it.

 

[GTsquirrel]

Do the professors writing your LORs have to have an Interfolio account also?

 

[pingouin]

Letter writers do not need to have an account. None of mine have had one, and the first three letters have uploaded with no problems. Two used the electronic upload, one faxed in the letter.

 

[Dr. Josh]

Letter writers do not need to have an account. None of mine have had one, and the first three letters have uploaded with no problems. Two used the electronic upload, one faxed in the letter.

If you have an account and have someone to write you a letter; how/where do you ask them to send it especially if they don't have an account?

 

[CATallergy]

does interfolio tell LOR writers where their letters are going?

 

[Pemberley]

If you have an account and have someone to write you a letter; how/where do you ask them to send it especially if they don't have an account?

If you actually get an account, you will find very clear instructions. I don't remember the details off the top of my head, but there was nothing to worry about.

does interfolio tell LOR writers where their letters are going?

No

 

[pingouin]

If you have an account and have someone to write you a letter; how/where do you ask them to send it especially if they don't have an account?

For every letter that you add to your "dashboard", there is an instruction page for the writer. It tells them how to do electronic upload vs fax vs mail. The instruction page accompanies the letter, and has a bar code at the bottom which gets matched to your account.

 

[sehnsucht]

i set up an account in January and I had all of my LOR sponsors send their electronic and paper letters to interfolio. You get a notice when the letter is ready for use and you can send everything out using their online service options for mail. I am really happy with the service.

 

[Mazowszanka315]

Yes, I agree it does give very clear directions for LOR, after you set up an account. I don't know if your writers will find out where the letters are going. Beforehand my writers just wanted a ballpark of some of the schools that I will be applying too.

 

[menaniac]

Interfolio saved my behind on so many levels, its not even funny. Best money I've ever spent! I had to apply for 2 admissions cycles to get accepted. If I had to give all my letter writers postage, that would have been lots of money right there! There were several nice things about using interfolio. 1) Many medical schools accept electronic submissions of LOR's right from the interfolio website. They get the letters instantly, and there's no getting lost in the mail. 2) Its really easy to pick and choose which letters you want to send to which school. I had certain professors write for me that I sent to some schools and not others depending on their contacts there. 3) You can easily see who has submitted their letters, and who hasn't. You can't actually read what they wrote, but you can see who has submitted what. Then you can go bug the late people to get theirs in. This is so much better than calling each school to see who's gotten what. 4) You have control over what gets sent when. You know who you've sent letters to, and which letters you sent (there's a sent-history as part of the account). 5) They accept LOR's in electronic format, FAX'ed or mailed. Very easy for the recommenders to deal with. If there is a problem with the quality of the submission (one of my letters had a black line running through it from the bad FAX machine used), they tell you right away. Then you can get the person to re-submit another way, or use a different machine. I thought that was nice of them to let me know my LOR looked like doo-doo. That would not have impressed a committee, even if it was readable.

Bottom line, Interfolio rocks. Definately do it. You'll be happy you saved yourself a lot of time and trouble over doing it the individual letter way. Good luck!

 

[autumnprisim]

Ah hA! I'm glad to have found this post! I just started to wonder what to do about letters of rec. Has anyone used anything besides Interfolio?

I'm all for oranization and making it easy on letter writers... but is it really worth $4 per electronic submission? I can see how this application process is going to add up. Sheesh!

Thanks!

 

[menaniac]

Ah hA! I'm glad to have found this post! I just started to wonder what to do about letters of rec. Has anyone used anything besides Interfolio?

I'm all for oranization and making it easy on letter writers... but is it really worth $4 per electronic submission? I can see how this application process is going to add up. Sheesh!

Thanks!

Trust me, $4 per submission is a bargain when you know the letters got sent, and when. When you factor in the postage (esp. for certified mail, return receipt mail, which is always a good idea), and the cost of your time running around making sure all your profs sent stuff in to the right place by the deadlines, its a downright steal. Bottom line, piece of mind...priceless.

If you're really worried about the cost of the $4 fee per school, wait 'till you have to write checks to every school you apply to for about $100 a pop to send in with your secondaries! The cost of postage is a drop in the bucket for this whole process, my friend!

 

[chemphd]

Just putting in another plug for Interfolio- it's completely worth it. One of my letter writers told me today how great it is that he only had to write one letter (instead of however many it ends up being). I've also heard horror stories about letters getting lost in the mail- with Interfolio you'll have their record of when they sent it which could save you if something gets lost along the way.

Good luck


Chem

 

[Flopotomist]

Ah hA! I'm glad to have found this post! I just started to wonder what to do about letters of rec. Has anyone used anything besides Interfolio?

I'm all for oranization and making it easy on letter writers... but is it really worth $4 per electronic submission? I can see how this application process is going to add up. Sheesh!

Thanks!

Another vote in favor of interfolio. Best money spent during the application process.

 

[Dr. Josh]

Ah hA! I'm glad to have found this post! I just started to wonder what to do about letters of rec. Has anyone used anything besides Interfolio?

I'm all for oranization and making it easy on letter writers... but is it really worth $4 per electronic submission? I can see how this application process is going to add up. Sheesh!

Thanks!

How is it $4 per submission? I did the plan for $45; I thought I saved on postage that way, in addition to needing it because i wasn't applying right away.

 

[uzbekistevie]

How is it $4 per submission? I did the plan for $45; I thought I saved on postage that way, in addition to needing it because i wasn't applying right away.

It sounds like you signed up for the 3 year plan which is probably a good idea if you are not applying right away. This is simply the cost of creating and maintaining a file for you. Your $45 is the equivalent of signing up for one year plan three times ($15 x 3). The $4 per submission is charged for each mailing address to which you send letters and is in addition to the cost of setting up the account. Each $4 is good for sending up to 20 pages to one address which ought to cover all of the LORs sent to any one particular med school. Looking at the site the 3-year plan gets you 3 free mailings which will save you $12 on letter submissions. Anyway, read through the site FAQ's. That should clear up any other questions.

 

[salvarsan]

Interfolio sounds like a great investment.

Can LOR from one application year be retained and reused in subsequent application cycles?

Thx

 

[menaniac]

Interfolio sounds like a great investment.

Can LOR from one application year be retained and reused in subsequent application cycles?

Thx

As long as you pay your bill, all of your letters stay there (unless you choose to delete them). herefore, its a good idea to title your letters something like "Prof. Someone Rec 2007" so you'll know who wrote it, what it is and when it was written. You could theoretically send this year's letter for next year's cycle, but the date would read 2007. I don't know if this would make much difference in application, but keep it in mind when sending things out.

 

[korsibor]

Now, i'm a bit confused about the use of interfolio. I'm applying to about 20 schools. Now, if the writer wants to personalize the recommendation, then that means he/she needs to write and upload 20 different letters. Does one really need to persoalize a LOR, with the schools adress and all? Also, if i'm sending LORs to 20 schools, do I need to send twent requests to the writers? Please explain. Thanks

 

[CultureDoc]

Now, i'm a bit confused about the use of interfolio. I'm applying to about 20 schools. Now, if the writer wants to personalize the recommendation, then that means he/she needs to write and upload 20 different letters. Does one really need to persoalize a LOR, with the schools adress and all? Also, if i'm sending LORs to 20 schools, do I need to send twent requests to the writers? Please explain. Thanks

I had the same confusion last year, so I hear ya!

Here's the deal: your letter writers DO NOT personalize their letters to each school. (Coming from an old school background I thought this was very bizarre, but no one does it; it's OK!) You start a new document, title it, and then e-mail (or print and give) the accompanying request to your letter writer (you create a separate document for each letter writer). Each letter writer uploads or mails his/her letter to Interfolio, then you decide where each letter gets sent. It's a very nice, streamlined process. I was a big fan last year . . . and am an even bigger fan this year, as Interfolio still has all of my letters from last year!

Now if you want someone to personalize something to a particular school (let's say this person is a professor there or has some "in" with the folks there or something), then you need to get that letter writer to write one version for that school (make sure to title it appropriately in Interfolio), and then write a "generic" version for any other schools you're applying to. So, then you would need to start 2 different documents in Interfolio and give that person 2 different request forms.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions . . . I was SUPER confused last year on all of this, but I know the ropes now!

 

[Barts]

Interfolio worked out great for me and I would highly recommend it. Also, if you check out the current Auction, there is some Interfolio stuff being auctioned!

 

[Atomic Blonde]

Hey, I used Interfolio for all my letters, I had 5 and it was very easy. In addition, your letter writers do not need to have an account, just make sure you go on-line and get the form that your writers need to send in along with you letter, ensuring it gets into your account. Super easy.

AB

 

[Nevadanteater]

Completely recommended.

Made my life much much easier (not to mention my letter writers').

 

[Lokhtar]

Some of the best money I have ever spent.

 

[alibai3ah]

I have heard great things, and I don't think their are any compeititors that have as good of a reputation. However, I would say the one flaw in using it is that they don't really have a committee letter. So thats why I actually have both my school's letter service and am getting interfolio. Interfolio is for applying to graduate school and SMP's as a back up, which my schools do not cover in their letter service. But aside from the committee leter (which people still do not think is important), I cannot think of one other thing. It is FAR more convenient than making your professors send each one. And honestly its not expensive, my schools letter service was $125 for 3 years this is about 57 or something, and they do everything from graduate school to law school to even jobs.

 

[Omashu]

Interfolio RULES

 

[sean1984]

I have had an okay experience with them, but I think I am just missing something in their instructions. All my letter writers said they did not receive anything from Interfolio when I listed them as the letter writers. Luckily, Interfolio is smart and made an option where you just download the PDF that they would use and you can just send that. I have not sent secondaries to schools yet, so we will have to see how that goes.

Someone asked a question if the letter writers have to have an account. The answer is that they sign up for a free account. From what I have heard it was pretty simple. I actually applied to graduate school just by giving my letter writers a list of places and some stamped addressed envelopes. I have had professors ask why I didnt use interfolio back then, because it would have their lives easier.
Hope this helps

 

[pingouin]

I have had an okay experience with them, but I think I am just missing something in their instructions. All my letter writers said they did not receive anything from Interfolio when I listed them as the letter writers. Luckily, Interfolio is smart and made an option where you just download the PDF that they would use and you can just send that. I have not sent secondaries to schools yet, so we will have to see how that goes.

Unless Interfolio has changed something since last year, they don't send your writers anything: you do. IIRC, you name each document that you plan on uploading, then for LORs you print out a separate set of instructions for each letter as you enter it. It's the instruction sheet that you give to your writers that has the appropriate code (bar code?). Or they can do the electronic upload which is even easier, although one of my writers had a problem accessing it (the others didn't).

 

[coffeebeanjenn]

I have had an okay experience with them, but I think I am just missing something in their instructions. All my letter writers said they did not receive anything from Interfolio when I listed them as the letter writers. Luckily, Interfolio is smart and made an option where you just download the PDF that they would use and you can just send that. I have not sent secondaries to schools yet, so we will have to see how that goes.

Interfolio is great! The only negative feedback I heard was that the signature function is a little screwy, but most of my letter writers figured it out. Interfolio really took the stress out of this aspect of the application.

To send an email to your recommender, this worked for me:
Add document
Select confidential LOR
Fill out the form, include the letter writer's email
Select the "I would like to send an email request form to my letter writer"
Fill out more form
Hit submit

This should send an email with instructions to your letter writer. It worked for me, at least.

 

[murfettie]

it's cool
i just signed up for it.
i try to make my professors' lives as easy as possible.