<p>When professors write LORs, do they ever ask other professors about you or do usually base their letter on their experience with you?</p>
<p>I used to work for a professor who I think doesn't like me. Just my vibe and I won't go into the details. I don't know if this one relationship will affect another professors letter.</p>
<p>It depends, if they could use more input into a certain aspect (i.e. reasearch), they could go and talk to professors. One of my LOR writers talked to my thesis adviser to get more information about me to write about.</p>
<p>I would just ask if they could write you a strong or good letter of recommendation in your stead, and wouldn’t worry about it too much.</p>
<p>It is best to get profs who know you well and who you know will go to bat for you. I had a similar situation and the prof I asked wrote me a glowing LOR. I had actually discussed the interpersonal problem with him before and he was very sympathetic.
If you are worried you might add some additional details about you and your lor writer’s interactions that might have slipped his or her mind. (I took classes x and y with you. In class x I became very interested in topic z and asked thoughtful questions that furthered the discussion. In class y I learned about subject area a, which I went on to specialize in for my thesis, my future plans are… and your classes prepared me well because…, etc) I have found that lor writers appreciate the help.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply!</p>
<p>I forgot to mention that this is an LOR for summer research programs. This is not too important, but just throwing that out there.</p>
<p>A professor I’m planning on asking for an LOR is one who’s teaching one of my classes for this semester. I plan on doing research with him next semester. He’s very nice to me and has helped me find multiple sources of programs. He said he knows some programs in Europe and that if I interested, he’d help me with it. </p>
<p>Last year I worked for a professor, who doesn’t seem to like me at all. I honestly have no idea why. I worked with a post doc in his lab who really liked me. Whatever the reason was I really hope it doesn’t affect other writer’s opinions. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if I should discuss the problem. Awhile back I did mention the previous boss I worked for was a “very nice and caring guy.” I didn’t mean it tho, but I didn’t know what else to say. I’ve read that it’s bad to talk about previous bosses/professors in front of other professors/bosses.</p>
<p>Yeah, I wouldn’t bring it up. In my case the meanness was due to personal problems in that faulty member’s life that my lor writer already knew about, so even if negative feelings were expressed I think he would have taken it with a grain of salt. But it sounds like this person already has formed an opinion about you that is positive, so I wouldn’t be concerned.</p>