Dartmouth students and recent graduates may establish a file in Career Services to assemble letters of recommendation from faculty and employers. These letters may be used for graduate school, professional school, internships or employment applications. At your written request, the letters will be duplicated and mailed to designated schools.
Although many graduate school applications include recommendation forms with their applications, these forms are usually not required. Dartmouth professors and administrators prefer to write recommendations on their letterhead stationery and send them to your file in Career Services or directly to the schools to which you apply.
It is your responsibility to check that letters you have requested have arrived in Career Services. Career Services will only mail letters of recommendation when your file is complete and upon your written request. Allow at least 10 business days to process your requests. All files will be maintained for ten years following graduation.
In order to open a credentials file, you must sign a statement indicating your preference to waive or retain your right to review the contents of your credentials file. This decision applies to all letters in your file. If you choose to retain your right to review your letters, please keep in mind that letters can be viewed in Career Services and cannot be read over the telephone, copied, mailed, or faxed. Files are the property of Dartmouth College.
Career Services will mail letters only to schools and will never release the letters directly to the applicant. Although some schools request that letters of recommendation be submitted by the applicant in the same packet as the application, our policy does not permit us to send recommendations to the applicant.
Please call (603) 646-2603 or e-mail credentials@dartmouth.edu if you have concerns regarding this policy. We will work with you to be sure that your letters are presented to the school or employer appropriately with respect to our policy.
