concerning online student references

The older you become, the more reference letters you are asked to write. I’ve come to enjoy the process.

Today I did 10 or 12 for one (excellent) student. And I again had the chance to observe the varying levels of efficiency of different university online reference systems. Some are extremely easy and need just a few clicks. A few others are a bit of a pain (though I have the sense that all universities are becoming better over time at designing these forms).

My greatest annoyance is with those universities that try to throw in lots of little special quirks to make sure that you’re taking the process seriously enough. While that is fully understandable when dealing with applicants, it’s a bit of an imposition on the reference writers. Many of us write these letters for a dozen or more past and current students per semester, and slowing the process down with “gotcha” mechanisms such as asking the same question twice with a reverse order of good-to-bad ratings makes me feel like I’m taking a corporate psychological test. Reference writers need to be allowed to do these things as quickly and painlessly as possible. If you want to know what we really think, just read the letter. Some time is always spent on those letters. Tricky little check-boxes are just a headache.