Mark1012

I agree that it is not easy to tell if a professor who appears to be friendly and eager to write a letter would actually do so. I suspect though that it is possible that he or she will not write a good enough letter. It's only a suspicion since I have no proof, but only a reason to suspect, so in the end it's just a matter of intuition, unless you can actually see the contents of the letter. I could not, since all letters were sent electronically and I waived the right to inspect them later, as I thought there was no reason to do so, that I should trust my referees. Anyway, a few years ago I asked a former superior (he was not a professor, but a Director of an office where I had worked for a while; one recommendation can be professional in a lot of grad programs) to write me a recommendation for all the schools I was intending to apply to, and he agreed without hesitation. We had a very good working relationship, he relied a lot on my analyses and reports, and he was very content, so I thought that he would be a good source of reference as we collaborated on a daily basis and intensively so. However, I omitted to take into account that there was a moment when he did not appear to be very pleased due to my take on a certain subject. I disagreed with his concept and views, and I gave him my argumentation why I did. I know that perhaps it is not always wise to give your own opinions, but since that was part of my job and since he specifically asked me to report on the topic with my personal take, I thought it was perfectly ok. Apparently, I was wrong as his reactions were at best a camouflaged anger expressed politely as in "let's agree to disagree", but I sensed he was furious. Anyway, that was just one moment, and I remained professional and polite and it was soon forgotten. So he did submit the letter to all institutions I asked him to, however I got rejected at all of them. I never really knew what he wrote as I did not ask him to disclose the contents, and as he did not offer to disclose it I thought it would be improper to ask. Yet, the following year I applied again to some of the institutions I had applied to the previous year, and to some new ones. I decided to ask the same referees to submit a letter, except for my former boss. I got letters of acceptance from all! (I did not apply to 15 schools like some of you here, but to 5). So, even though I have no proof that that particular referee was a reason for all of my rejections the previous year (quite possibly he might not be the only reason, yet I suspect that he had had part in it). So, my advice to all would be when selecting a referee, try to browse through your mind any moments of inconvenience with this person, even if otherwise the cooperation was great, because you can never really know what's going on in the minds of other people and whether they are holding some grudges for whatever reasons. I know that it's not always possible to tell, sometimes you might come to a moment when you realize that a particular person might not be the best fit for a referee, even if he or she seems so at first. Select your referees so that you would be absolutely sure that they're on your side and want you to succeed. Good luck to all. Oh and yes, I forgot to say. I don't think it makes much sense in asking - would you please write a GOOD letter of recommendation for me? A professor that wants to support you doesn't need to be reminded that the letter should be good. And besides, the word recommendation in itself has a very positive connotation; someone who is recommending you is doing so because he or she believes you are capable of doing the work for so and so reasons. Good and recommendation in this context are tautological.