Help Please. Why did my professor do this weird thing? Don't you think this is harmful for my application?

[Belle1987]

My professor copy pasted an almost entire paragraph in my personal statement to her letter of recommendation, as if she has written it. What she has copy pasted is about my research interests, she has not even bothered to reword my research interests and has simply copy pasted the whole thing! I mean there isn't even quotation marks, I described my research interests in an idiosyncratic way, so it is not just a simple list that she copy pasted.

What if the admissions committee thinks I wrote the LoR or that I copy pasted her words to my personal statement? Is it NORMAL for a professor to do this? Also she has spelling mistakes in her letter! She doesn't do spelling mistakes usually, so can it be that she did those mistakes just to give a sloppy appearance to her letter in order to harm my application?

[kaykaykay]

? How did you see your letter of recommendation?

[eklavya]

What if the admissions committee thinks I wrote the LoR or that I copy pasted her words to my personal statement? Is it NORMAL for a professor to do this? Also she has spelling mistakes in her letter! She doesn't do spelling mistakes usually, so can it be that she did those mistakes just to give a sloppy appearance to her letter in order to harm my application?

yikes!

how this is going to reflect on your depends on the adcomms. my first thought is that i think they'd think that your prof is the original writer of that paragraph and think you might have plagiarize it. this definitely won't turn out well.

my second thought is that perhaps they will think your professor knows you very very well and therefore, is very familiar with your research work and interest. so it shouldn't be a big deal. however, if the paragraph is copy-pasted verbatim, the consequences are quite unpredictable.

my last thought is that they will think you and your prof came to an agreement on what nature of LoR should be written for you. during the discussion, perhaps you guys outline exact sentences to put on the LoR and your SoP. having a conversation about what kind of letter to write is not uncommon - i have seen in few times in my own dept.

i can't imagine what you are going through, but all i can say is play it cool. perhaps the consequences won't be as dire as you are thinking. if you haven't turned in the LoRs yet, maybe you can talk to the professor?

[Belle1987]

Thank you very much for your responses.

No I won't speak to her about it because she's written like 10 references and already submitted them online, so she probably copy pasted the paragraph on those recs too! Good thing is I haven't submitted by personal statements yet so I will change my OWN statement because of her so that the admissions committee do suspect anything fishy.

I saw this LoR because it was a hard copy for which I did not waive my right. She also wrote I would do successful in a phD program whilst the recommendation was for an MA (I am applying for phD and MA programs so I think she got confused)

This isn't something acceptable right? I mean is it possible that she did not realize what type of consequences this could have for me?

And yes she copy pasted it verbatim! She's printed it out and she obviously copy pasted from the electronic copy of my personal statement I sent her

Edited December 2, 2010 by Belle1987

[Bukharan]

This is a bizarre situation but do not worry too much over it. You still have time - you haven't submitted your SOPs yet. Change that paragraph and all will hopefully be well.

It does not really matter what she wrote in her LORs and in what terms she described you - there is absolutely nothing you can change! So focus on improving your application and do not worry! There is no point worrying when you can't do much, right?

If that helps, I'd say she meant well. She DID submit those 10 LORs. If she wanted to hurt your admissions chances/ genuinely disliked you, she would have refused to write LORs for you in the first place. Yet she did - in her own way - but she did!

It is perfectly normal to worry over such things. I spent the entire day trying to figure out on what 'side' of my academic field one of my supervisors was: was he rightist? leftist? what is his reputation in that particular department I am applying to? ... but really there is nothing we can do after the documents are in the system! So why worry - we better get a drink and salute ourselves for our efforts!

[Belle1987]

.

Edited December 2, 2010 by Belle1987

[shepardn7]

Thank you very much for your responses.

EDIT: Can you help me out on this too please? She's called me "gentle and modest" is this actually a compliment in your opinion? (Along with the usual very capable, smart etc) I mean is "gentle and modest" what graduate schools are looking for?

"Gentle and modest"? It's a compliment, but how the compliment is received depends on who is reading the letter. Unfortunately, it generally comes with the territory if you're a woman:

http://www.usnews.co...promotions.html

It sounds she's describing you as "feminine" or with traditionally "feminine traits," which can be problematic for complicated reasons.

But remember that this is only one letter. This means you have two other letters, plus the rest of your application materials. And, also, "gentle and modest" is only one phrase in a longer letter. I wouldn't worry about it. I can be "feminine" and a little shy, and I'm hoping that my letters don't "talk down" to me unintentionally because of it.

I can't believe the prof. copied and pasted from your SOP. That's frustrating.

[kaykaykay]

Honestly I think it is much better if you do sign the waiver. I would not even want to look at my recommendations- what is done is done . I would worry though that this recommender does not know you well enough if they resorted copyig part of your SOP and characterize you as modest. Or maybe they are not a native speaker? I had a prof who asked me to write my own reccomendation letter than he tweaked it (he did not show it to me any more) the problem was that he was not a native speaker and I guess he wanted to get a template from me. Anyway there is nothing you could do about the situation. In some places they let you to submit 4 recommendations if you want to maybe you can ask another person. Otherwise just relax and change that part of your SOP.

Edited December 2, 2010 by kalapocska

[Alyanumbers]

If she calls you "gentle and modest" you might want to exude self-confidence in other parts of your application, specifically the SoP. You don't want the ad-comm thinking you're too shy, insecure or lacking in self-confidence.

[natsteel]

If she calls you "gentle and modest" you might want to exude self-confidence in other parts of your application, specifically the SoP. You don't want the ad-comm thinking you're too shy, insecure or lacking in self-confidence.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/10/letters