Your LORS: Do you read them?

[gadhelyn]

I have read one of my LoR for two reasons: he wanted to make sure he had the details right (such as how many hours I worked with him during undergrad, how we did a project that I had suggested), and he wanted me to type in the address for each individual letter and get them printed out and put into envelopes (he's my supervisor in the lab).

I have extras from my Co-PI (yes, all of mine are research-related, it's my strong point and really wanted to highlight it). I will be returning them to her soon.

While I am very curious to know what my PI has said about me, I would rather not actually read it. I know it was very flattering, though, because I am good friends with his administrative assistant and she has given me a couple pep talks. But I would not read or ask to read it without him actually encouraging it.

[modernity]

What IvyHope said is that just because you did what you think is "good work" for a class and made a good impression with your punctual behavior doesn't mean you have any aptitude for doctoral work. It sounds like you're talking about getting a good recommendation for good behavior, really, and she's trying to tell you that that's not what professors are being asked to evaluate. And now you're protesting and quibbling in the same manner you claimed (above) would endanger a good rec. I wish some of you would stop protesting so much and listen to people like IvyHope who know what the score is. She's trying to help you out (not that many people listened to her on the PoliSci top 25 thread a while back)....

I was not looking for any help on the subject of LORs - I'm not one of the people that's worrying. I was simply trying to give some comforting words to the people that were worried that essentially, if they tried their best, and they made a good impression, and they're determined the odds are in their favor. I was not talking about the ENTIRE recommendation when IvyHope quoted me. Someone - the screen name is escaping me at the moment, said "but what about things like emotional maturity?(an item that appears on the checklist)" and I said well SOME indicators of emotional maturity would be... it was an example, off the cuff, and meant to be comforting. That's all I was referring to- NOT whether or not that candidate was prepared for PhD work in general, or that if you were punctual you would get a stellar LOR - this is a huge oversimplification of what I said... IvyHope commented on how what I was saying was not the entirety of the situation which was NEVER what I was getting at and why I was disagreeing with her. I never said that IvyHope's points weren't valid so I'm not sure why you're talking to me as if I had. My point was that my words were being taken out of context and then oversimplified. I am annoyed that I have to be so explicit/continue to clarify when you could very easily go back and read the exchange I was having with the other individual and see that. I am simply trying to get advice on other subjects, and give some encouraging words to others. I'm not here to argue, or to be patronized. As someone who is new around here and thought that they'd finally found a friendly community to discuss these things with, its a huge turnoff to have to constantly be on the defensive.

[MCTitans]

I would never feel right reading them while my application is still being processed, or even after an interview, though I have a great relationship with my PI and she wouldn't mind at all. My two professors would, I believe, however.

However, I have read at several sites (UPenn-BGS comes to mind as a definite) that once matriculated, we have access to our files even if we waived our rights - I'm assuming that's so because you are no longer an applicant but a student of a particular university.

As a curious person, I actually probably would look at them then, and only not to prevent potential tension between some letter writers who didn't write something as good as you had hoped, or they suggested they would.

Overall, once you're in, I see no reason why a student shouldn't be able to review their file, and I guess universities agree.

[dragynally]

I break out the LORs I have permission to read whenever I feel down.

[willtherebestars]

My advisor (who is also my thesis advisor and independent study professor) gave me permission to read her letter. It made me cry! I'm not sure if she was just saying a bunch of really flattering things because she's been in the field forever and she knows how it works, but if any of the other letters were anywhere near as good as hers, I feel good about at least one part of my app. :mrgreen:

It's tempting but I'd feel secretly guilty forever if I read one without permission. It makes me shiver a little thinking about it, haha.

[limeinthecoconut]

I finally dug out the spare letter that one of my LOR writers gave me, and intended to return it to him today. With my usual forgetfulness, I didn't bring it along with me today to campus. I bumped in the LOR writer, and mentioned to him that his letter is still sitting at home.

He didn't seem particularly bothered, and told me that I could return it to him, thrash it, or open it and read it.

I still don't think I will read it, though. But at least I have the ease of mind that if he is comfortable with me reading it, it should be a decent letter.

[40404]

My boss asked me to read the recommendation letter he wrote for me asking if he was able to cover all the needed things (one of the schools i applied to require recommenders to comment on the applicant's commitment to public service, etc).

Some recommenders would even ask you to write a recommendation for yourself and they would just tweak it..

As for the other profs, I waived my right to read them so crossing my fingers they wrote nice things. hahaha

[gadhelyn]

I gave one of my recommenders an extra sealed copy of her letter back, then she handed it right back to me.

[anythingtwice]

When I applied for a scholarship last summer, one of my references for that gave me my own copy of his letter. It was really well-written (and flattering!) so I definitely made sure he wrote some of my LORs for grad school!