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What can PrivateFolio do for you?

When academics are on the job market, one of their greatest expenses comes from fees charged by dossier services to manage their confidential letters of recommendation. We founded PrivateFolio.com to provide comprehensive and secure online dossier services at a fraction of what other services charges, saving candidates hundreds of dollars each application cycle. You can learn more about our services through this explainer video and responses to our frequently asked questions below.

FAQ's

What is an online dossier service?

Online dossier services allow academics to solicit, manage, and send confidential letters of recommendation, along with other documents and credentials. This service ensure that confidential letters stay confidential, while allowing candidates to bundle letters with other application materials and deliver them to search committees efficiently.

What does your leading competitor charge?

Our leading competitor has been raising their prices to the point that it can now cost candidates $12 per job application to have their letters submitted to any search that is not using their platform. Specifically, they charges $4 per letter to upload letters to a job site (x3 for the typical application=$12), $6 to send an email delivery, and $6 for a mail delivery. When a candidate applies widely over a job market cycle, this can easily add up to hundreds of dollars of delivery fees. PrivateFolio's fees are about half of our competitor’s, and we offer substantial promotions that provide the first dozen deliveries free of charge. Our long-term goal is to reduce the costs to job candidates as much as possible.

What about Vitae- isn't that free?

The Chronicle of Higher Education has created a free but severely limited service called Vitae that unfortunately cannot upload letters to application sites (which is required by a majority of applications) or send hard copies via the mail. What's worse, their service is not secure, as applicants can view their confidential letters of recommendation by simply having them emailed to an alternative personal address. For this reason, most dossier services will not upload letters to Vitae's dossier platform and many professors have refused to do so as well.

Can PrivateFolio be used for searches that are hosted on other online platforms?

Yes - PrivateFolio can interface with any university application system, as well as larger application portals run by Interfolio, Vitae (Chronicle of Higher Education), and AcademicJobsOnline. This provides our users a comprehensive solution for managing their confidential letters of recommendation, while also allowing them to take advantage of other systems when there are financial benefits to doing so.

Can PrivateFolio deliver letters to application portals for health related graduate programs, such as medical schools, dental schools, and nursing schools?

Yes, we deliver confidential letters of recommendation to all major health-studies related application systems including those run by AMCAS-AAMC, AACOMAS, AADSAS, NursingCAS, and CASPA. When prompted to provide your letter writer's contact information in these systems, simply enter the unique email address that we assigned to your letter. For AMCAS, we have a dedicated feature that interfaces with their Letter Writer Application.

I'm a letter writer and I lost the email request with my upload link or I'm having trouble uploading a letter, what can I do?

No problem, simply email us the letter at help@privatefolio.com and we'll take care of it. You'll receive a confirmation email once the letter has been processed.

Can my department or career center partner with PrivateFolio to offer dossier services to our students for free or at discounted rates?

Yes- just drop us an email at help@privatefolio.com and we'd be happy to set this up. We can save most departments over $1,000 a year and provide campus-wide solutions that can save significantly more.

Where can I find detailed explanations of how to use all of your services?

Once you are logged in to your account, visit our helpdesk for specific solutions to any quandaries you may have, or reach out to us at help@privatefolio.com.