Recommendation Service for Graduate School Applicants

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

In order to facilitate the graduate school application process for our students and alumnae, the Dean of Studies Office maintains recommendation files for any student or alumna who requests this service. To open a file, please fill out the Applicant Information Sheet. (You can pick up a paper copy of the information sheet from the receptionist in the Dean of Studies Office, or you can print out a copy from the Dean of Studies Office website.)

Once you’ve opened a file, you can start requesting recommendations. Your recommenders can submit their letters to us in electronic or paper format. In either case, recommenders should be sure to use letterhead, and they of course must sign their letters. (We can accept letters electronically only in PDF format.) If they’re sending letters electronically, they should send them to recommendations@barnard.edu; if they’re sending them in paper format, they should send them to:

Mr. Peter John, c/o the Office of the Dean of Studies, 105 Milbank; Barnard College; 3009 Broadway; New York, NY 10027

Waiving your right of access: Under federal law, you have the right to review the letters in your file. If you wish, you may choose to waive this right. If you’d like to discuss any issues related to waiving your right, please schedule an appointment with Dean Schneider.

If you wish to waive your right to see all the letters in your file, please fill out, sign, and submit the general waiver form, which you can pick up in the Dean of Studies Office or online.

When you request a recommendation, you should also fill out, sign, and give to your recommender a copy of the individual waiver form, which the recommender should fill out, sign, and return to one of the addresses above.

Here’s how we will send out your letters:

Electronically: If your program requires that your recommenders submit their letters electronically, then you will need to enter the following e-mail address when you are entering each recommender’s information in your electronic application: recommendations@barnard.edu. (In other words, you enter, as requested, each recommender’s name, title, etc., and then—instead of entering the recommender’s personal e-mail address—you enter recommendations@barnard.edu.)

Important:  Please be sure to fill out and submit to us a Graduate Recommendations Request Form (see below).  Ideally, you should get us the Request Form before you enter recommendations@barnard.edu in any of your electronic applications.  For several reasons, we need to have your Request Form before we can start responding to electronic requests for your recommendations.

When the programs to which you’re applying send their electronic prompts to your recommenders, those prompts will come here to the Dean of Studies Office, to our recommendations assistant, Mr. Peter John, who will then upload your letters for you, as each prompt comes in. We will fulfill each request within five business days.

Paper: If your program requires that your letters be sent in paper format, please provide us with a completed Graduate Recommendations Request Form (also available in the Dean of Studies Office and online, at the DOS site) and stamped envelopes.

Address a business-sized envelope (#10) to each institution to which you want your recommendations sent. Self-adhesive envelopes are appreciated. Write your name on the inside flap of each envelope. (We handle a high volume of recommendation requests and want to be sure that we can identify envelopes even if a paper clip comes loose.) Please leave the return address area blank—we’ll put the Barnard address there. Attach postage—one first class stamp is generally sufficient for an envelope containing three letters. More than three letters in one envelope may require additional postage and a larger envelope (9 x 12).

When we receive a request, we generally will send all of the appropriate recommendations in your file. If you have a more specific request, contact the recommendations assistant, Mr. Peter John: pjohn@barnard.edu; 854-2024.

Each envelope that we mail on your behalf will include a brief explanation of how the Barnard recommendations service works, along with a copy of your signed waiver form, to ensure that graduate schools know whether you have chosen to waive or exercise your right of access. We will fulfill requests within five business days.

Note: If you request that we send out your file only after we receive a particular letter, please understand that unless we hear from you otherwise, we will hold your file until the letter arrives, even if your deadline passes. If you change your mind and want us to send out your file with one or more letters missing, because your deadline(s) is/are approaching, be sure to let us know.

Questions: If you have and questions about the policies and procedures, or about any related issues not covered here, please contact us:

Email (preferred): pjohn@barnard.edu
Phone: 212-854-2024
Fax: 212-854-9470

Barnard College
Office of the Dean of Studies
3009 Broadway, 105 Milbank Hall
New York, New York 10027

Best wishes for a successful application!