Letters of Recommendation: The Importance of Interfolio

Request for Letter of Recommendation

It is one of the most dreaded steps of medical school applications for me. Especially when you are a student like me who is facing rejection after rejection. You decide to give up after one application cycle, but then that little voice inside of you says, "Try one more time somewhere else." So, that is exactly what I do. I try yet again at schools I have not applied to. But then I have to go knocking on those professors, doctors, and employers' doors once more. I have to explain to them once more that after being rejected, I want to try again. Will they help me?

Interfolio

While expressing my frustrations and embarrassment to a friend of mine about asking for letters of recommendation again, she asked me if I had an interfolio account. "Interfolio? Huh? What is that?" I had no clue what it was. After she explained it to me in her own words, I rushed to Google to get an even better understanding of it. Once I caught up on it, I realized that this faculty software could have saved me tons of embarrassment and precious time.

Medical school applicants who are reading this blog, I urge you to open up an interfolio account. You want to sign up for the "Dossier Service" account when you do open one up. "Interfolio’s Dossier service provides you with one centralized account to collect, store, and deliver all your application materials—including confidential letters of recommendation. Use [the] Dossier service to store all the application materials you want, including letters of recommendation, your CV, evaluations, and writing samples.

Dossier works for all types of deliveries: email to an institutional email address, hard copy to a physical address, and web applications to Interfolio’s ByCommittee platform for faculty hiring.
You can send out requests for confidential letters of recommendation through your account, giving your letter writer an easy way to electronically submit their letter directly to [Interfolio] to hold for you. Any letters your recommenders submit are reusable, so Dossier helps you make it easy on them, too." (Source: www.interfolio.com)

I have applied to 4 Caribbean medical schools and the delay right now is the letters of recommendation. Issues that I am coming across:
1. Emails! Many of these recommenders are busy or they receive too many emails. As a result, they never get the chance to even see your email for an LOR request. OR they no longer work at the school or job that they use to work at. This leads to inactive email addresses that they no longer have access to.

2. Denial! You can only request an LOR but so much from someone. Recently, I had one of my strong recommenders tell me that she had a baby, therefore, she was too busy to write/send an LOR for me. That was a tough blow. I honestly believe that she just got annoyed. But hey! It's life!

3. Explanations & Delays! I feel some type of way whenever I am asked, "What happened? Why weren't you accepted?" I then have to go into details about what happened. I dread that. I feel embarrassed. I guess if you're asking or in my case begging for assistance, then you have to relive the pain of what caused you to reach this point. Eventually, they do agree to write the letter but time is of the essence. The delay is precious time wasting that may cost you a seat in the term you want to apply.

Price of Interfolio

Here are the 3 plans that Interfolio have for a dossier account. I urge you to take advantage of this very affordable service. It may end up being a lifesaver. You won't regret it. Better safe than sorry. I know I wish I opened up an account sooner.