Counseling & Services
Dossier Service FAQ for Students and Alumni
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This page contains basic information on the Dossier Service, frequently asked questions for students and alumni, and step by step instructions for using Interfolio.
About Interfolio
- What is a dossier?
- What is Interfolio?
- Why has the Center for Career Education partnered with Interfolio to manage the Dossier Service?
- Is it safe?
- What will happen to my paper dossier records?
- How do I register with Interfolio? How soon can I create my account?
- Is there an additional charge associated with using Interfolio?
- How should I go about requesting letters of recommendation?
- Will faculty members who write my letters of recommendation be familiar with Interfolio?
- Do I still need a waiver form with Interfolio?
- When and how will my dossier be sent?
- My application requests that all materials arrive in one package. Can Interfolio accommodate this?
- Can I view the letters of recommendation that are in my account?
- Can I add transcripts to my account? Will they be considered official?
- I am applying to medical school. How do I send an electronic delivery of my letters to AMCAS?
- How will my faculty members get my letter of recommendation into my Interfolio account?
- Who can I contact if I have a question about the dossier service?
- What if I do not want to use Interfolio?
Step-by-step Instructions for Using Interfolio
- How to register with Interfolio
- How to add e-mail addresses to your account
- How to create a new recommendation request
- How to verify that your recommendations have been received
- How to change the title of a document that you have requested
- How to request that a reference be submitted on your behalf
- How to send a delivery electronically
- How to request that confidential documents be uploaded to a web page
What is a dossier?
A dossier consists of letters of reference and other credentials that speak to a candidate's scholarship, research interests and teaching experience. A dossier is specifically used in applying for teaching positions at either the secondary level or college level and for fellowship applications. Columbia partners with Interfolio, Inc., an electronic dossier service provider, to manage the Dossier Service.
What is Interfolio?
Interfolio, Inc. is a Washington, D.C. based company, whose primary mission is to provide electronic dossier portfolio services. Dossier portfolio contents and dossier service accounts will both be housed on Interfolio's web server. Access to both Columbia's webpage as well as Interfolio's is 24/7/365. From Interfolio's webpage, Columbia students and alumni can activate their personal Interfolio accounts and issue instructions regarding distribution of the contents of their dossiers. In addition, faculty can automatically upload references for students and alumni to their Interfolio account or, if they prefer, they can provide the Center for Career Education with a hard copy of their letter of recommendation and the Center will electronically submit this information to Interfolio.
Why has the Center for Career Education partnered with Interfolio to manage the Dossier Service?
Columbia University's partnership with Interfolio provides Columbia graduate students, faculty, and alumni enhanced electronic functionality for submission, storage, and security of letters of recommendation. Graduate students and alumni also benefit from Interfolio's electronic delivery system and lower cost compared with Columbia's former service. In addition, students and alumni can upload all the materials they need for their job or graduate school search into their account, such as letters of recommendation, curriculum vitae, writing samples, evaluations, and transcripts. Similarly, you will have the ability to submit all of your documents in one package.
Is it safe?
The privacy and security of your information is Interfolio's highest priority. Robust technological safeguards, including multiple levels of encryption, keep your stored documents protected, secure, and private. A rigorous quality control process ensures the accuracy of all documents and mailings, and digital backups are stored at a secure, off-site location to further protect your important documents.
What will happen to my paper dossier records?
Records for dossier users who registered prior to September 4th, 2007 are still archived and on file at the Center for Career Education. For dossier users who registered after September 4th, 2007, documents will be archived and stored at Interfolio's facility.
How do I register with Interfolio? How soon can I create my account?
If you currently hold a dossier account through Columbia University, even if you have not utilized this service recently, your account, including all letters of recommendation, was transferred to the Interfolio system and available for your use on September 4th, 2007. Therefore if you previously had an account with Columbia, please do NOT create a new account with Interfolio. All account holders were sent an e-mail when the electronic transfer of their documents occurred. This e-mail contained instructions for activating your account as well as an account user name and password. If you did not receive this e-mail it is likely you had an outdated e-mail address associated with your dossier account. Please contact the Center for Career Education at dossierservice@columbia.edu to retrieve your log-in information.
If you have never registered to use the dossier service, you can visit www.Interfolio.com at any time to register for a new account. When creating an account, please make sure to select "Columbia University - Dossier Service, Center for Career Education" as your "affiliation" on the registration page. If you are unsure if a record exists for you please contact the Center for Career Education at dossierservice@columbia.edu and we will verify this information for you.
Is there an additional charge associated with using Interfolio?
There is an annual registration fee of $19 to use Interfolio. Users also have the option of registering for a 3 year account at $39.90 or a five year account at $57. Additionally, users are responsible for expenses incurred in distributing their dossier's contents to schools or employers.
How should I go about requesting letters of recommendation?
Approach appropriate letter writers and brief them about your career search goals. Remember to give your letter writers ample time to write your letter. You will use the Interfolio system to create a document request for each of the recommendations that you request. You will be asked to identify the type of document that you are requesting and will create a name for this document (i.e. Prof. Smith letter 2008.) Next, you will have the option to either e-mail your document request to your recommendation writer or to print out the document request form. The e-mail option includes the ability to customize your e-mail request or to choose a standard request form. We highly recommend that you customize each request that you make. Each document request will include a unique document ID number. This document ID is necessary to appropriately match your credentials with your account. Please remember to remind your recommendation writer that the document request form must accompany any recommendations that are mailed to Interfolio or to the Center for Career Education. If your recommendation writer has an Interfolio writer's account they will only need the document ID number to be able to upload your recommendation to your dossier.
Will faculty members who write my letters of recommendation be familiar with Interfolio?
The Center for Career Education works directly with members of the academic community on the Columbia University campus to make them aware of how to use Interfolio. In addition, the Interfolio website has resources and tutorials for letter writers.
Do I still need a waiver form with Interfolio?
The waiver form previously utilized when a recommendation request was made has been replaced by the document request form. In accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 students and alumni must indicate the confidentiality status of their letter when they create a new document request. The letter of recommendation request form that your recommendation writer receives (either electronically or as a hard-copy) will indicate if you have or have not waived your right to view their letter.
When and how will my dossier be sent?
You have many options for sending out your dossier. One of the enhanced features of the new dossier system is the ability to deliver your documents electronically to Interfolio receiving institutions. You may also, of course, have your documents mailed to the recipient. First class USPS mailings must be received by midnight the night before in order to be processed and sent out the next business day. USPS priority mailings, FedEx 2 day, FedEx overnight deliveries and electronic deliveries must be received by 2pm. Mailing options include U.S. Postal Service Regular Mail, U.S. Postal Service International Mail, U.S. Priority (2-3 days), Expedited (2-3 day delivery and tracking), Rush Overnight, and International (2-3 day delivery and tracking). Here are the costs associated with deliveries:
- Electronic deliveries - $6.
- US Postal Service First class mailings - $6.
- Web delivery - $6 for first document, $1 each additional to same institution
- International postal service delivery - $7
- US Postal Service Priority mail - $12.
- 2-Day Delivery with tracking - $16.
- Overnight delivery with tracking - $28.
- Rush overnight delivery with tracking - $40
- International 2-3 day delivery and tracking - $45
Whether the documents are sent physically or electronically, they arrive in a black and white printed format with a cover sheet indicating the student's name, Columbia University, and a list of the contents of the dossier and the number of pages to each item in the dossier. Students determine the items to be delivered and the order in which they will be placed in their package. The materials will not be stapled. This is intentional to facilitate copying.
My application requests that all materials arrive in one package. Can Interfolio accommodate this?
Yes, Interfolio allows you to put all the documents that you need to apply for a position into one package. You will not need to send your letters of recommendation separately.
Can I view the letters of recommendation that are in my account?
In accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 you have the right to determine if your letters of recommendation will or will not be confidential. Most people choose to waive their right to view the letters. When you create a document request using Interfolio you will indicate if you have or have not waived your rights by selecting either "Confidential Letter of Recommendation" (rights to view letter are waived) or "Non-confidential Letter of Recommendation" (rights to view letter are not waived.) The document request form that is associated with each request you make will indicate the type of recommendation letter that you are requesting (confidential or non-confidential.) This form will indicate to your recommendation writer the confidentiality status of your request.
Interfolio maintains the confidentiality of all closed letters of recommendation their file holders store with Interfolio. Interfolio follows strict guidelines for receiving and mailing all closed letters of recommendation to ensure that confidential documents stay that way. Account holders are notified when Interfolio receives a letter of recommendation on their behalf, and holders have the ability to select it in a mailing to a potential graduate school or employer. They do not, however, have the ability to view the document at any point in time.
Can I add transcripts to my account? Will they be considered official?
You can add a transcript to your account by having your registrar send your
transcript directly to Interfolio. Detailed instructions for this process are found here.
Go to the My Documents section and
click the “Add Document” link. Select “Transcript” from the Document Type drop
down list and enter a unique title for the document (for example, “Interfolio
University, Undergraduate Transcript, 2004”). Click the "Create Placeholder and
generate Request Form” button.
Once you've done that, you can give the
request form to your registrar and ask them to mail your transcript to
Interfolio along with the form.
As soon as Interfolio receives the
transcript, we'll scan and upload your transcript into your account, and it will
be available to you within three days of when we receive the documents from your
institution.
I am applying to medical school. How do I send an electronic delivery of my letters to AMCAS?
In order for AMCAS to successfully process a document, you must send your AAMC ID with your delivery and include the correct AAMC Letter IDs for each document that you send.
Please follow these steps to send your documents to AMCAS:
- Please check your AMCAS account and note all of your individual AMCAS letter IDs. You will need both this and your AMCAS applicant IDs to send your delivery successfully.
- Log in to your Interfolio account. Navigate to your Account Settings and check the ID section. Make sure that your AAMC ID is entered and labeled correctly.
- Create a delivery to AMCAS that includes all of the documents that you wish to send.
- Step 3 in the delivery creation process enables you to include your AAMC ID in your delivery. You must do this in order for AMCAS to process your delivery.
- Before you finalize your delivery, you will be asked to provide AAMC Letter IDs for each of the documents that you are sending. Please make sure these IDs are properly entered.
- Complete your delivery transaction.
Electronic delivery requests received by 2pm on a business day are processed by Interfolio on the same business day. Delivery requests processed after 2pm will be processed by Interfolio on the next business day. As soon as we process a delivery, it becomes available to AMCAS. The AMCAS system usually processes data from Interfolio once each business day. For information on the AMCAS processing schedule, please visit http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/faq/amcaslettersfaq.htm.
How will my faculty members get my letter of recommendation into my Interfolio account?
Faculty members have a number of options for the submission of your letters of recommendation. The quickest way for letter writers to add recommendations to your account will be to create a free writer's account and electronically upload documents through the Interfolio service. Detailed instructions on getting started as a Letter Writer can be found here. Faculty members may also choose to submit their letters of recommendation directly to Interfolio at help@interfolio.com. Additionally, faculty members may continue to deliver or mail letters of recommendation to the Center for Career Education and staff will electronically transmit this information to Interfolio on their behalf. You can anticipate these documents being added to your electronic record within two business days of their receipt by the Center for Career Education.
Who can I contact if I have a question about the dossier service?
If you or a student or alumnus of your department has any questions regarding Interfolio, please do not hesitate to contact the Center for Career Education who can assist with many questions regarding the service. Staff at the Center for Career Education can be reached:
Electronically - dossierservice@columbia.edu
By Phone - Beth Vanderputten (212/854-9464) or Liz Wang (212/854-3376)
In Person - East Campus Building, Lower Level (directly across from Faculty House, enter through Wein Courtyard.)
You can also contact Interfolio directly at 877/77-FOLIO or help@interoflio.com. Technical support is also available directly through the Interfolio website, http://www.interfolio.com.
What if I do not want to use Interfolio?
If you do not want to use the Interfolio service, you have several options:
- You can ask to have the contents of your dossier account sent to a different institution, for example, the school where you received your Bachelor's degree or a Master's degree. You will need to contact the school to set up an account at that institution.
- You can request that the contents of your file be destroyed.
- You do not need to activate your account with Interfolio. The contents of your account will remain on file at the Center for Career Education; however, you will not be able to send dossier requests.
How to register with Interfolio
Note: Please remember only individuals who have never had a dossier service account need to register with Interfolio. For individuals who previously held or currently hold a dossier account, an Interfolio account was created on your behalf. When your dossier contents were transferred to Interfolio you received an e-mail with your Interfolio account user name and password.
- Access the Interfolio website at http://www.interfolio.com
- Click on the "Sign Up" button.
- Enter your personal information making sure to indicate "Columbia University - Dossier Service, Center for Career Education" as your "affiliation."
- Retrieve confirmation e-mail and click on link provided to activate account.
How to add e-mail addresses to your account
- Log into your Interfolio account.
- Select "Account Settings" from the upper right hand corner of the screen.
- Under "Personal Information" select "Edit My Info."
- Select "Add Email Addresses."
- Enter additional e-mail addresses and click "Add Email" button.
How to create a new recommendation request
- View a video demo of this process here.
- Log into your Interfolio account.
- After you log in select the "My Documents" tab.
- Next, you can select either "Add Document" or "Request Confidential Letter of Recommendation" (selecting "Add Document" will still allow you to create a confidential letter of recommendation request.)
- A new page will appear. Select the "Document Type" from the drop-down menu. Select "Confidential Letter of Recommendation" or "Non-confidential Letter of Recommendation."
- In the box, create a title for your recommendation (i.e. "Professor Smith, September 2007.)
- Indicate whether you will be making the request through e-mail or if you will be printing out the request form and providing it to your letter writer:
- If you select "Yes, I would like to send an emailed request form" enter the e-mail address of your recommendation writer and the text of your e-mail. Next, click the "Request Letter" button. You will now be taken back to the "Manage Documents" screen and your request will be listed at the top of your document request table.
- If you select "No, I'd like to print out the request form and give it to the writer" click the "Create placeholder and generate request form" button. A new page will appear that contains a printable version of the request form. Click the "Print" button at the top of the form. Print the request and provide it directly to your recommendation writer.
Note: Until your recommendation request is fulfilled you can always print another copy of your recommendation request, even if you originally sent the request via e-mail. A link to the request form for each document is under the "Status" column on the "Manage Documents" page of your Interfolio account.
How to verify that your recommendations have been received
- Log into your Interfolio account. After you log in select the "My Documents" tab.
- Under "Manage Documents" you will see a table that lists all of your document requests.
Tip: The boxes listed next to "Show" directly above the document request table allows you to filter the table based on "Active," "Pending," or "Archived" documents. If you only want to view those documents that are pending, only check the box next to "Pending."
- The "Status" column will indicate if your document has been received and, if so, the date it was received on.
- If your document was a non-confidential letter of recommendation you may view this document by selecting the icon in the "Download" column.
Note: Your document request/receipt history can be printed at any time. Simply click the "Print" button at the top of the document request table to print a hard copy of this information.
How to change the title of a document that you have requested
- Log into your Interfolio account. After you log in select the "My Documents" tab.
- Click on the hyper-link/name of your document in the table of document requests under "Title."
- A new screen will appear. Under "Details" there will be another hyper-link of your document title. Select this link.
- The link will now appear as a text box where the name of your document can be changed. Once you have made any changes click the "Save" button under the text box.
How to request that a reference be submitted on your behalf
- Log into your Interfolio account. After you log in select the "My Deliveries" tab.
- Click on the "Add New Delivery" link under "Manage Deliveries."
- A new screen will appear. In "Step 1" enter the name of the delivery destination (for instance, "School of Medicine") and click the "Find" button.
- A new table will appear under the search box. Here you can locate and select the institution that you are mailing your documents to or select the "Not found. I want to enter address myself" to enter the address yourself.
Note: If no records are found that match your search parameters text fields for you to manually enter the delivery information will appear instead of a table.
- After selecting the delivery address or entering it yourself proceed to "Step 2" on the same page.
- Under "Step 2" you will see a list of your documents. Add a recommendation to the delivery that you are processing by clicking on the "Add" button next to the document that you are requesting. The document should now appear in the "Documents Selected for Delivery" box on the right hand side of the screen.
Tip: If you have multiple recommendations in one delivery you can change the order that they will be assembled in by using the blue arrow buttons before the title of each document in the "Documents Selected for Delivery" box.
- If you would like, you can associate an ID number with your delivery request in "Step 3." Please note, it is not required to associate an ID number with the request to process the delivery.
- Once you have finished selecting the documents that you would like to include you can do one of the following:
- Proceed to mailing options by clicking the "Check Out" button
- Make arrangements for another delivery by clicking the "Add Another Delivery" button
- Make arrangements for another delivery using the same series of documents that you have just identified by clicking the "Add Another Delivery With Same Documents" button
- A new screen will appear, select the delivery request(s) that you would like to process and choose a mailing method for each one that you would like to process. Then click the "Send Deliveries" button at the bottom of the page.
- A new screen will appear where you will need to enter your billing information.
- Once you have entered your billing information click the "Send Deliveries" button.
How to send a delivery electronically
- Log into your Interfolio account. After you log in select the "My Deliveries" tab.
- Click on the "Add New Delivery" link under "Manage Deliveries."
- A new screen will appear. In "Step 1" enter the name of the delivery destination (for instance, "School of Medicine") and click the "Find" button.
- A new table will appear under the search box. Here you can locate and select the institution that you are mailing your documents to or select the "Not found. I want to enter address myself" to enter the address yourself.
Note: If no records are found that match your search parameters text fields for you to manually enter the delivery information will appear instead of a table.
- After selecting the delivery address or entering it yourself proceed to "Step 2" on the same page.
- Under "Step 2" you will see a list of your documents. Add a recommendation to the delivery that you are processing by clicking on the "Add" button next to the document that you are requesting. The document should now appear in the "Documents Selected for Delivery" box on the right hand side of the screen.
Tip: If you have multiple recommendations in one delivery you can change the order that they will be assembled in by using the blue arrow buttons before the title of each document in the "Documents Selected for Delivery" box.
- If you would like, you can associate an ID number with your delivery request in "Step 3." Please note, it is not required to associate an ID number with the request to process the delivery.
- Once you have finished selecting the documents that you would like to include, proceed to mailing options by clicking the "Check Out" button
- Email delivery will be listed as one of the check out options. Select this option and check out.
- Please only send email deliveries to programs and positions which are requesting this method.
- Interfolio will verify the address you give, send your delivery, and provide you with delivery confirmation. You will be charged $6.
How to request that confidential documents be uploaded to a web page
If your institution requires that you submit credentials by uploading documents to a website, Interfolio can facilitate the process with the web delivery option.
- Log into your Interfolio account and locate your document's unique email address. To access this, go to the "Add Delivery" page under the "Deliveries" tab. Under step 1, click where it says "Click here to deliver confidential documents to a web page". Locate the document you need to have uploaded. Copy the unique email address.
- Log into your online application and paste your document's unique email address into the appropriate field reserved for your evaluator's email address. Repeat this step for each evaluator.
- Monitor your email. Interfolio will send you an email indicating that your web delivery has been created.
- Complete your delivery transaction by logging into Interfolio and navigating to the "Pending Deliveries" page under the "Deliveries" tab. For each letter requested, a separate web delivery is created. Confirm that the correct document is going to the correct institution. Click "Check Out" to complete your transaction.
- Web deliveries start at $6. ($6 for the first letter to an institution. $1 for each additional letter to that same institution.)