Apply With Bev - Recommendations
This week I am tackling my references. Especially my psych recommendation as that can be a headache. I thought about and reached out to two people in my life who are willing to write a recommendation. They are my former boss and someone I currently volunteer with. I know that I can’t use family members to be a rec but man my mom would write something nice if she could!
I’m going to reach back out to all of my recommenders and let them know the form is headed their way imminently.
If I am applying online, I am going to log back into my Smarter Select application and just click into the Recommendations, even though I haven’t started anything else yet. The boxes will be red, indicating it isn’t done yet, which can feel intimidating but I haven’t done anything wrong.
I’m going to send out the requests through SmarterSelect! I just need their name, number, email, and organization/company. If a reference doesn’t have a place they work, I can just put N/A. My recommenders will get an email from my application and can fill out the form right in their inbox. I will get an email when they have completed it, which is very helpful to ease any stress on that front!
If I am doing a mail in application, I am filling out the top portion of each of the forms. I am then going to give the forms to my references in person. If they plan to give it back to me in person, I will give them an envelope to place it in when complete, and ask them to sign their name over the sealed part to prove I didn’t peek. If they want to mail it back to me, I can give them an envelope that I addressed to myself with a stamp on it, and wait for it in the mail. I will include all three of these unopened envelopes when I mail in all of my materials.
The recommendations felt like the hardest part, and it was so tempting to wait until the last minute to ask my three people. But, I am glad I got it over with, especially because they have PLENTY of time now to fill them out!
That should be it! But there are always tricky bits. Some fast answers to the hiccups that may come:
If one of my references wants to send in their stuff on their own, that is allowed. They can head to our website, download the form, and mail it or upload it to the HIPAA secure server. Or! They can write their own letter of rec and send that in one of those ways as well. Important: Should a reference want to fill out the form off of our website, they need to print it, complete it, and scan it. There is not an option to fill out the form directly from our website.
If my new doctor doesn’t know me well enough to fill out the form, they can simply just verify my diagnosis on letterhead and sign it and mail or upload it. That is the most important aspect of their input.
One of my references is going to be nice and just submit their form through SmarterSelect. One is going to write a letter and mail it. My doctor is going to verify my diagnosis and upload it. As long as the program gets the recommendations, our program doesn’t mind if they come in a few different methods!
Check out our social media accounts for photos of this process!