Understanding the Letter of Recommendation Process

Applicants request letters of evaluation (i.e., letters of reference, letters of recommendation) in the application by listing their evaluator's contact information. Evaluators then received an email request, where they can access Liaison Letters, our Recommender Portal.

Evaluators can review all requests in Liaison Letters, and then accept, complete, or deny them. Evaluations must be completed by the evaluators themselves; they cannot be completed or submitted by the applicant. In some CASs, evaluators can designate assistants or "delegates" to help them submit their letters of recommendation on their behalf through Liaison Letters. Recommenders are still responsible for writing an applicant's letter of recommendation.

Liaison is not responsible for verifying evaluators' identities. If a discrepancy is found, Liaison reserves the right to contact the appropriate individuals to investigate and to share the discrepancy with all programs.

If your CAS allows applicants to request letters of evaluation (i.e., letters of recommendation, letters of reference), then applicants are sent several emails, including:

• Their Evaluation Request, confirming the evaluator they requested.
• An Evaluation Completed email, confirming that the evaluation was completed and submitted by their evaluator.
• A notice that the evaluation request wasn't successfully sent, if applicable.
• A notice that the evaluator denied the evaluation request, if applicable.

Additionally, evaluators are sent routine emails, including:

• The Evaluation Request.
• An Evaluation Submitted email, confirming that they completed and submitted their evaluation.
• A notice that the applicant withdrew their evaluation request, if applicable.

Applicants can track when evaluations are received under the Check Status tab or CAS Status section in the application.

You can view letters of evaluation:

• On the Applicant Details page under the Evaluations panel.
• In the PDF Manager, Electronically Submitted Evaluation document type.
• In the List Manager, Export Manager, and Scoring under the Evaluators field grouping. The Number of Evaluations Received field, located under the Applicant field grouping, is another helpful field and especially useful if your program requires a minimum number of evaluations that is different from the CAS minimum requirements.
• In the Report Manager, Evaluations Report.

Some CASs allow evaluators to update their submitted evaluations. If your CAS offers this, then you may want to follow the guidelines outlined in the Identifying New and Updated Applicants page to manage updated evaluations.