How are Letters of Recommendation (LORs) submitted?

[AirGuy]

For college, we went with integrity and submitted the LORs without seeing them. How does it work for OCS. In college, my high school directly submitted them to the colleges. Do we ask our professors / others to directly send them to OCS, to the Recruiter, or do we submit them ourselves? And also are we allowed to look or not?

 

[Renegade One]

For college, we went with integrity and submitted the LORs without seeing them. How does it work for OCS. In college, my high school directly submitted them to the colleges. Do we ask our professors / others to directly send them to OCS, to the Recruiter, or do we submit them ourselves? And also are we allowed to look or not?

What does your OR tell you? Do that.

 

[brouwerb]

Your OR should give you specific instructions but it really does not matter, at least in my experience. I submitted 6 letters from various sources, all but one I collected personally from the person and then scanned to my processor. I generally left it up to each person as to if they would like to send it to me, have me pick it up, or mail it directly to my OR. Most everything can be done via email and scanning the letter to your OR. That being said ASK your OR or processor (in my case) and he/she will tell you exactly what they would like.

 

[Renegade One]

What does your OR tell you? Do that.

Your OR should give you specific instructions...ASK your OR or processor (in my case) and he/she will tell you exactly what they would like.

But I repeat myself...

 

[AirGuy]

Your OR should give you specific instructions but it really does not matter, at least in my experience. I submitted 6 letters from various sources, all but one I collected personally from the person and then scanned to my processor. I generally left it up to each person as to if they would like to send it to me, have me pick it up, or mail it directly to my OR. Most everything can be done via email and scanning the letter to your OR. That being said ASK your OR or processor (in my case) and he/she will tell you exactly what they would like.

But I repeat myself...

I probably should have phrased this better. The big question is whether it is ethical to view LORs.

 

[jbweldon04]

I don't see why not. . . You are applying to go to OCS so you should be honest with the application, but at the same time you should sell yourself to the Navy. If a LOR isn't going to help you get accepted, why include it in your package?

 

[BackOrdered]

I probably should have phrased this better. The big question is whether it is ethical to view LORs.

When I was making LORs, I did it much in the way you will create award letters in the fleet. I wrote the letters and after asking the Professor/Senior Officer for permission, I gave it to them to chop and sign if they concurred with the write up. So to answer your question, yes it is ethical, in fact get use to it.

 

[jbweldon04]

I wrote the letters and after asking the Professor/Senior Officer for permission, I gave it to them to chop and sign if they concurred with the write up.

I have done just this with my LOR's. Send them to an O-8, O-6 times 2, and one O-5.
My old boss told me, if you want something done by your boss, make his job easier. I did by writing it for them.

 

[AirGuy]

I don't see why not. . . You are applying to go to OCS so you should be honest with the application, but at the same time you should sell yourself to the Navy. If a LOR isn't going to help you get accepted, why include it in your package?

When I was making LORs, I did it much in the way you will create award letters in the fleet. I wrote the letters and after asking the Professor/Senior Officer for permission, I gave it to them to chop and sign if they concurred with the write up. So to answer your question, yes it is ethical, in fact get use to it.

Alright. Just making sure. Because our high school made us waive our rights to see LORs or something like that. Basically teacher handed them right to the college councilors and the LORs were sent forward from there. Tiz, are you saying you made your own LOR and asked the professor to just sign it? Is this the way it works? I was just going to ask them to write me one and tell them my motivation for joining the Navy. Is there anything I should ask them to put?

 

[BackOrdered]

Tiz, are you saying you made your own LOR and asked the professor to just sign it? Is this the way it works? I was just going to ask them to write me one and tell them my motivation for joining the Navy. Is there anything I should ask them to put?

When I was a civilian in college, my rule was to ask first via a signed formal letter of request (about 2-3 paragraphs stating my goals, why I felt their opinion of me mattered and of course respectfully asking permission), I got a yes 100% of the time via a face to face talk in their office about the letter, I worked on the LOR over the course of a week and turn it in to them to sign face to face. The process demonstrates your professionalism and validates their opinion of you. You have to "offer" to write it for them as it will give them an idea of all you have accomplished they may not be aware of. Be sure to offer that to them, not tell them. You can't be presumptuous, they may very well want to just interview you and write it themselves. That's fine.

In the fleet the process is the same, minus the flattery and fluff. You would just route your award/FITREP through the chain of command through the quickest physical means in a routing folder for approval. It is very routine, complete with written procedures, time frames and a routing matrix.

 

[delta215]

I gave a list of names to my OR and he in turn sent them each a DD-370. It was up to the discretion of each person I wanted an LOR from as to whether or not I got to see what they wrote.