<p>I asked a prof if he can write me a strong LOR and he responded "I can write a positive academic LOR."</p>
<p>Should I be worried that he didn't use the word "strong?" He's one of those profs who is very careful about his wording.</p>
<p>It will be a relatively generic letter which only discusses your academic performance. That is the kind of letter I write when I do not know the student too well. If you have other faculty who know you better, then use them.</p>
<p>Never mind.</p>
<p>Oh, but he knows my goals in pretty good detail. He also went out of his way to contact potential programs for me. One of which he says there is a strong chance I will be able to pursue that program after he contacted them. Another program, he mentioned he knows one of the coordinators quite well. So I guess that was implying that he’d put in a good word for me by talking to him, but unfortunately I didn’t meet one of the qualifications (a nonacademic/research one) for that program. I will also start working in his lab next semester. </p>
<p>He’s someone I would call a “strict disciplinarian.” </p>
<p>Does any of that change anything? I guess I may have answered my own question. I’m not sure.</p>
<p>Why don’t you ask him directly?</p>
<p>If he’s careful in his wording, I’d say there’s something very deliberate about answering the question “Can you write me a strong LOR?” with “I can write you a positive academic LOR.” That may be his nice way of telling you that although he thinks you are a great student and probably can do the work required in graduate school, he hasn’t seen you do research and perhaps doesn’t know you very well personally so he can’t really write a strong letter.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t asking the same question again look bad?</p>
<p>Isn’t rare to have done research with all of your writers?</p>