Is It Okay to Ask Students to Write Their Own Recommendation Letters?

FACING THE TEMPTATION

If you’re a professor, teacher, physician, or business mentor, you’ve likely faced a familiar dilemma: a pile of recommendation requests from students you’re happy to support, but at a time when your calendar is already overloaded with higher-priority tasks.

The temptation is understandable: Why not save some time and ask the students to write the first draft themselves?

The answer? It depends.

1. WHEN IT’S CLEARLY OFF LIMITS

In some cases, especially for certain grants, government jobs, or academic roles, this is strictly prohibited. Many programs require attestations that the recommender authored the letter independently. In these situations, delegating any part of the writing to anyone else can carry serious consequences.

If this is you, check the rules, bite the bullet, do the mitzvah.

2. WHEN THE STANDARD IS ACCURACY AND SINCERITY

But in other situations—for example, some industry roles, graduate programs, and even some medical residencies—accuracy and sincerity are more important than sole authorship. What matters most from an ethical (and legal) perspective is whether the letter reflects your genuine judgment, not who typed it.

Of course, it’s ideal to write the entire letter yourself. At the same time, in these cases it’s not verboten to ask your administrative assistant or even the student to help you prepare a rough draft.

If the choice is between not submitting a letter and submitting one that someone helped you write—well, follow your conscience.

“Ethics matter. So does time. Fortunately, you don’t have to choose.”

— Justin Latterell, Ph.D.

The key here is that, whoever writes the first draft, you still need to review it, revise it, and stand behind every word of the final draft.

3. A SMARTER, ETHICAL APPROACH

Happily, there’s a better alternative. Reffy, a fast-growing AI platform, is designed to help busy professionals manage recommendation requests efficiently, and without sacrificing ethics, authenticity, or writing quality.

Reffy makes it easy to collect detailed information from applicants (achievements, goals, relevant context), keep everything organized, and use Reffy’s bespoke AI to generate a thoughtful draft in your own voice. You retain full control, but avoid the time sink of starting from scratch.

When the letter’s ready, Reffy also makes submission easy through whatever link or portal the student provides.

HERE’S THE BOTTOM LINE

If you’re confident in your endorsement but short on time, you still have thoughtful, ethical options. And you don’t need to put the burden on the applicant to write their own letter when tools like Reffy offer a more balanced, efficient way to write letters that reflect your voice and values.

---

---