Okay so I’m applying to Syracuse for sociology. And for that school you NEED 2 letters of rec, most school only require one so far as I’ve seen. One of my letters is great. However the other I had to get I’m worried about. The teacher is nice and I did fairly well last year except for one factor. St the end of the year she accused me of plagiarism on my faunal paper which was total bs but whatever. Basically I just didn’t paraphrase material enough and I didn’t cite everything correctly ig. At the end of it all she said how she knew it was an accident and I learned to be more careful and that we would put it behind us. Expect now she has to put it in the letter. I’m pissed bc when I initially asked for it she agreed happily and so I thought maybe she wouldn’t add it in. BUT when I got it from her she said she had to include it and so I decided that since I didn’t need 2 letters for the first college I applied to that I wouldn’t use it. Although, now I need it. I read the letter and basically said “she had incident, but she learned from it and I think it make her a better academic student at your university”, along with a bunch of positive comments. Will this effect my admission chances on otherwise positive application. I’m taking a SUPA course as well.
I really think your writing ability will significantly impact your admission chances more than a letter of recommendation. I had trouble reading your post. Are you a second language speaker?
Affect=verb/action (influencing/changing) The fire affected the lives of the people.
Effect=noun/results (what’s leftover?) The families’ effects were too burned to be used.
Why don’t you ask another teacher for a LOR?
I agree. I would rather you have had a bland LOR than one talking about how you plagerized. It is too late now, though, no? It would look pretty bad if you asked a third teacher to write an LOR this late in the game. Since LORs are only a very small factor (and you aren’t going for a tippy-tippy top school) I would just hope for the best. At least she did say nice things about you.
I think it would be OK to ask a teacher for a LOR now. The rush should be over and the OP can explain that one school asked for a second letter. Worst a teacher can say is no.
I wouldn’t underestimate the value of LoRs. They’re an educator’s first hand view.
How did you read the letter? I thought students were supposed to waive the rights to see their LORs.
Yeah, that letter will hurt. As others said, try to find a different teacher to write a letter. I’m scratching my head about why you would even consider asking a teacher that you had a plagiarism incident with.
lol no my first language is english. I was just writing this while i was really irratated and worried and didnt bother to read through it again. My bad, sorry about that. But, in my opinion, my essays are really strong for my application.
While i was looking at my list of schools all of them only requied one letter. i didnt realize SU needed 2. on top of that, i had already applied to one school ED hoping i would get accepted. This teacher had already wrote me one regarding my first college so when I needed the second for SU she was really my only option. Bad planning on my part. At this point, i would not have time to get a second letter.
Yeah, it is too late for another letter. On the bright sice, im applying to other schools that i dont need her letter for - only the other teacher that i had write one as well. Also, my essays are pretty strong and im taking a SUPA course in the major i am applying too. I have heard taking a SUPA course strongly affects your app in a positive manner.
i didnt ask her at first, she offered. so when she offered I took that as a positive thing. Agian, my incident wasnt intentional and she knew that. Also, she didnt tell me until she had it done she was including that. I read it because she wanted me too before she submitted it with a hard copy.
Yeah, i thought about it. But with chrsitmas break in a couple days i would feel bad asking a teacher ya know
Note from an English teacher: what you did, as you describe it, is absolutely plagiarism, not the “bs” you describe it as. If you don’t cite others’ ideas in your writing, and especially if you lift direct quotes without quotation marks, you’re plagiarizing. If you haven’t yet submitted all of your common app material to Syracuse, you should address the incident there and how you learned from it (though to be honest reading your post it doesn’t really seem like you have)