<p>Thought you folks might want an update. D has heard back from three of the four master’s programs she applied to, and was accepted at all three, including one of the very top programs in the country that we figured was a crazy, hopeless, super-reach. So I guess that LOR must have been pretty good–or at least not terrible–once it finally materialized. Happy days here at the MommaJ household!</p>
<p>MommaJ,</p>
<p>Congratulations to you and your D.</p>
<p>Congratulations!</p>
<p>So nice to hear a happy ending!</p>
<p>So glad it worked out in the end! Thanks for coming back to update us.</p>
<p>Congratulations! What great news.</p>
<p>Congrats. Has she made her decision?</p>
<p>Congrats - glad that it ended well!!!</p>
<p>At the risk of bringing everyone’s wrath down on my head, I’d like to point out that the professor got the letters in within the time frame that the universities needed for their admissions. The student was even admitted to the “super-reach.” </p>
<p>It is hard to tell whether the professor sent in the student’s letter (probably not, really), or just used it to identify the experiences/qualities that were most important to the student and then wrote a different letter. Given the outcome, I would guess that the latter is more likely. It’s usually easy to tell the difference between a letter written by a student and one written by a faculty member.</p>
<p>A lot of faculty members do things just in time for the due dates. The happens because about 6 weeks into one’s first faculty appointment, one is already 18 weeks behind, in terms of demands. Calling the professor a “beyotch” isn’t going to speed things up.</p>
<p>I want to clarify something (and bring everyone’s wrath at me as well). Writing recommendation letters is not part of a college professor job. I am glad to do it if the student was actually good and I have time (at some point I had over 20 students who wanted letters, sorry, but it’s not going to happen). I don’t win anything if I write a student a letter (they won’t grant me tenure because I wrote 1000 rec letters, they won’t even ask if i did write 1), and they are not paying me anything for writing a letter (even if it takes a long time to do so). </p>
<p>A little gratitude (and less sense of entitlement) would take you a long way.</p>
<p>Thanks for the back-up, salander, post #170. </p>
<p>I have been a faculty member at a large public research university for 30+ years. My letters have tended to be quite effective in getting undergraduates into the graduate/medical/dental/pharmacy/vet med programs they are interested in. Aside from nationally competitive graduate fellowships, which are a long-shot for most students and presitigious named post-doctoral fellowships (ditto), I think I am batting about 0.960 in terms of students’ success. As Walter Brennan used to say, “No brag. Just fact.”</p>
<p>In all those years, I have never been asked by anyone at the university how many letters I have written, nor how long it took–even though I have been asked to provide information on other things that took 4 hours at most. When I was a department chair, I never asked the faculty about the letters they wrote.</p>
<p>It was not that I did not value the effort. I do recognize the letter writing as important.</p>
<p>I also realize the generosity of that act–it takes time away from the things that “count” at research institutions: grants and publications. I have forgotten whether the OP’s daughter is at an LAC. If so, conditions might be different there. Letter writing might even be part of the “job.”</p>
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<p>The only difference I noticed from chatting with Profs at my LAC was that teaching is weighed more importantly than grants and research/publications…but being lacking in the latter could still sink one’s chances of tenure/promotion. </p>
<p>That…and the willingness to teach a minimum of 5 classes per year without complaint.</p>
<p>There is a thread back in the day about letters of rec from teachers and whether it is part of their job. I argued that it isn’t. That it may be an expectation on the part of the students and their parents and that most teachers are happy to do it when appropriate. But it is not part of their “job”.
In this case though, the prof said she would and kept this kids on pins and needles for far too long. It was unprofessional and cruel IMO. It isn’t her job to write it but if she said she would and was reminded a trillion times to do, then she should be ashamed of herself for taking so long to submit a letter that was actually written for her.</p>
<p>I grant that it is annoying to the student to have to wait so long, and to have to provide repeated reminders. On the other hand, all that really matters is that the letter is submitted by the deadlines of the recipient universities.</p>
<p>Part of the annoyance seems to come from fretting well in advance of the deadlines.</p>
<p>QM,</p>
<p>I am amazed at your success rate. Do you only agree to write a rec for a strong candidate? what do you say to a student whom you don’t think has the ‘right stuff’?</p>
<p>Hi bookworm, re #175: So far, I haven’t turned down anyone who has asked for a letter. Part of the success rate is due to the fact that I am writing preponderantly for Ph.D. programs, rather than for medical schools, and the students have usually matched their qualifications to the levels of the programs pretty well. For the pre-med, pre-vet, pre-dent, or pre-pharm students, I think the main reason for the success rate is that I teach relatively high level courses, and the students who reach them are quite good. In addition to that, I have been fortunate that I have liked all of the students who asked me to write.</p>
<p>Also, I am not counting recommendations for things like the Rhodes Scholarship in my statistics.</p>
<p>I should add the usual caveat: Past performance is no guarantee of future results! And also: Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty countenance before a fall.</p>
<p>The students’ qualifications are the most significant influence on the outcomes, of course. I spend more than the typical amount of time on the letters–to the point that my spouse has reminded me that there is no Pulitzer Prize for letters of recommendation. But part of the high success rate is luck, too.</p>
<p>QM, I am impressed. You are probably an expert in knowing how to present each candidate in the best light. Having read many letters that do not come off well, I admire the skill of an exceptional letter writer.</p>
<p>Just curious…I understand that it’s not part of an instructor’s job description to write a rec; however, colleges and graduate programs all require at least two. If all instructors claimed to be too preoccupied to complete them, then what’s a student to do? Similarly, if many teachers fail to agree or fail to follow through on a request but a few others comply, that certainly puts an unfair burden on the shoulders of those willing to help. I speak from experience. I write numerous letters each year. Students approach me because they know I’m reliable, will include specific/personal anecdotes, and will submit it promptly. Those like me often harbor resentment toward our colleagues. Like everyone, my life is very busy and LORs require a significant amount of time to compose, but I chose this profession because I care and want to make a difference in my student’s lives.</p>