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Managing Your Academic Job Search Documents

Interfolio is one of several online services that graduate students may use to manage their academic job search documents, including confidential letters of recommendation.

Letters of recommendation for current GSAS students can be uploaded directly into Interfolio and do not need to be sent to the Office of Career Services. We hope users will enjoy this fast and efficient process. To set up an account please click on the section below that reflects your status.  For questions email dossier@fas.harvard.edu.

  • Maintaining your Interfolio account is your responsibility after you graduate
  • Interfolio will maintain electronic records of your letters for up to 5 years, if you let your account expire.
  • To keep your file active and available you must pay the yearly membership fee.
  • Please contact Interfolio's customer support for any questions about a current or expired account

Reactivating a Dossier Account Managed by OCS


Alumni who graduated after January 2008
Documents filed after 2008 are loaded in Interfolio. If you need to reactivate your expired Interfolio account, go to the Interfolio website and login using your previous username and password. You can use Interfolio’s “forgot password” feature, or if you have forgotten your username as well, email Interfolio at help@interfolio.com, and they will help you reactivate your expired account.

Alumni who graduated before January 2008
The Office of Career Services (OCS) strongly recommends that only letters of recommendation written within the last 3-5 years be used to apply for academic jobs and fellowships. Letters written more than 3-5 years prior will not provide search committees with sufficient evidence of your recent experience or be useful in their evaluation of your candidacy for a job. We suggest you ask your letter writers to create updated letters. If you feel you have a valid reason for requesting old documents on file at OCS please complete the following questionnaire and someone from the office will get back to you as soon as possible.

GSAS generously subsidizes students wishing to use Interfolio for their academic job search:

When you are ready to begin collecting letters of recommendation (typically G3+), activate your 3-Year Interfolio membership.

When you are actively on the academic job market, access your one-time-only $100 mailing allotment. Once you exhaust this $100 you will then be responsible for your delivery fees going forward.

Manage Letters of Recommendation for your Advisees


Interfolio offers an application portfolio management service, available to you and your advisees 24:7, to manage letters of recommendation for academic positions.

We strongly encourage faculty to create an Interfolio “Letter Writer” account. This will be the fastest and most direct route to provide letters for your students.

Create an Interfolio “Letter Writer” account and you will be able to:

  • Easily respond to students’ requests for letters of recommendation, and upload letters directly for students to access when needed. Letters will remain confidential, if the student waives the right to see the letter(s).
  • Upload a single letter for the advisee to use to apply to any academic position.
  • Upload multiple letters for an advisee, each of which you may tailor for a particular type of job (e.g. research university, liberal arts college, discipline-focused, interdisciplinary, etc). Please ensure that the student has clearly indicated the appropriate label in his/her request, so that you can upload each letter in its correct spot.

If you prefer, you may still send your letter(s) to OCS via email (dossier@fas.harvard.edu), or mail/hand deliver to: Dossier Service, 54 Dunster St, Cambridge, MA 02138, and we will upload the letter(s) for you. It is essential that you include the Interfolio Document ID# (a.k.a. Reference Number) to ensure each letter(s) is uploaded into the appropriate place if you are having OCS upload the letter(s) for you.

For technical questions, please contact Interfolio’s Customer Support. For additional questions, email the Dossier Coordinator at dossier@fas.harvard.edu or call 617-495-2787.