So some have had the same problems with USC, while others report no problems: it appears to depend on the day! Without a doubt, the best on-line portal is University of Toronto's: the link takes you directly to the page where you upload the letter, and you're done. No answering meaningless questions, filling in extra information, let alone having to create an account, as most of the Oxbridge colleges require. Every school should follow Toronto's lead. And the Oxbridge colleges should abandon graduate education until their portals join civilization.
UPDATE: Matt Kramer, Professor of Legal and Political Philosophy at Cambridge University, tells me that he regularly e-mails his letters of reference, even when there is an on-line portal. He has done this even for applicants to Cambridge graduate programs. When he gets the predictable response--we won't accept letters via e-mail--he sends the following brilliant letter, which he kindly gave permission to share:
You people have accepted references from me through e-mail numerous times over the past two decades. The most recent such instance was in 2017. As I have said to you people on the few past occasions when you have initially balked at accepting my references through e-mail, the transmission of references through e-mail is far more convenient for the sender than is the submission of references through the Web. Given that the recipient of a reference benefits from receiving it whereas the sender of the reference does not benefit from sending it, the convenience of the latter takes priority over the convenience of the former. If you think otherwise, then you must regard your time as far more valuable than mine.
If you can convince me that your time is far more valuable than mine, then I will go ahead with the submission of my reference through the Web.
However, at present I am decidedly unconvinced.
They accepted his letter via e-mail.
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