First of all, in relevance to the title: I know why I didn't get the letter. Throughout the last year of my masters, I've been struggling a lot with mental and physical health problems, along with problems with my mother's health that has made it difficult for me to be motivated and enthusiastic about research. I have completed subpar work in the last year of the work that I've done for this PI (which has been about 3 years) but I know he has high expectations and at this point I know he doesn't expect much of me because I've been struggling with meeting deadlines and working at the level he wants me to. I can admit that and I don't mind that he won't write me a letter - I kind of expected it. It hurts, sure, but I'm going to work through what I can until I graduate and defend next year.
My question is: how does this affect my future prospects? This PI was my undergraduate and graduate mentor. I want to still be able to complete a PhD, and while I have two other letters (both from summer programs) I won't have it from him. I feel like that would honestly look very bad on applications.
Because of financial reasons (re: my mom's illness) I most likely won't be able to apply for graduate school this cycle anyway, although I originally planned to. I've shifted my focus to looking for R&D positions and research associate jobs in my area. I hope to work in an industry lab for a while and maybe apply again in a couple years. However, I wanted to know: if I don't include a letter of rec from this PI, how bad would it look on grad school apps? Even in the future? I most likely won't ask him again and he most likely won't offer to write me one in the future. I would just like to know what to expect and other people's perspectives on this.
Question
lirnsd
Hi all, I just wanted a bit of advice.
First of all, in relevance to the title: I know why I didn't get the letter. Throughout the last year of my masters, I've been struggling a lot with mental and physical health problems, along with problems with my mother's health that has made it difficult for me to be motivated and enthusiastic about research. I have completed subpar work in the last year of the work that I've done for this PI (which has been about 3 years) but I know he has high expectations and at this point I know he doesn't expect much of me because I've been struggling with meeting deadlines and working at the level he wants me to. I can admit that and I don't mind that he won't write me a letter - I kind of expected it. It hurts, sure, but I'm going to work through what I can until I graduate and defend next year.
My question is: how does this affect my future prospects? This PI was my undergraduate and graduate mentor. I want to still be able to complete a PhD, and while I have two other letters (both from summer programs) I won't have it from him. I feel like that would honestly look very bad on applications.
Because of financial reasons (re: my mom's illness) I most likely won't be able to apply for graduate school this cycle anyway, although I originally planned to. I've shifted my focus to looking for R&D positions and research associate jobs in my area. I hope to work in an industry lab for a while and maybe apply again in a couple years. However, I wanted to know: if I don't include a letter of rec from this PI, how bad would it look on grad school apps? Even in the future? I most likely won't ask him again and he most likely won't offer to write me one in the future. I would just like to know what to expect and other people's perspectives on this.
Thanks!
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