Philosophy MA - professor is giving me mixed feelings about his recommendation

[Tr123456]

my professor said in his recommendation letter he has to write that i have a history of not completing courses. he said it is necessary and that because of it they will take the recommendation more seriously. he said he would not dwell on it and focus on discussing my excellent work, essays, and presentations. he told me to dicuss reasons for some incompletes on my transcripts. now im scared...my gpa is a 3.5 but ive had to retake some courses. my mother was ill and i was away from school alot and had to drop some courses or i failed them...

i plan to address this in my statement.

does anyone have any advice? is this going to seriously jeopordize my chances?

my SOP is good and so is my writing sample...

[emmm]

Sounds to me like you could find someone better to write a letter for you. If the tendency to drop courses is evident from your transcript, someone who really supported your application would describe the backstory, so that it doesn't sound like you are making pathetic excuses by trying to explain what happened yourself. Is there anyone else you can ask to write a letter for you?

[emmm]

Ask him if instead of just pointing out that you dropped a lot of classes, could he put it in context and describe how you perservered in spite of some challenging personal issues that you were dealing with. It can be presented in a positive or a negative light, and the way he plans to mention it and say no more makes it seem negative -- as in, "This student is capable enough, when he/she actually completes what he/she starts. However, this student is ready to cut and run whenever things get tough (i.e. will drop a class, rather than risking a less than ideal grade that he/she might have been able to avoid through native intelligence or hard work). It all depends on how it's presented and how it's interpreted, and you don't seem to have enough information to be sure that it will be represented in a positive way.

[Blurry]

my professor said in his recommendation letter he has to write that i have a history of not completing courses. he said it is necessary and that because of it they will take the recommendation more seriously. he said he would not dwell on it and focus on discussing my excellent work, essays, and presentations. he told me to dicuss reasons for some incompletes on my transcripts. now im scared...my gpa is a 3.5 but ive had to retake some courses. my mother was ill and i was away from school alot and had to drop some courses or i failed them...

i plan to address this in my statement.

does anyone have any advice? is this going to seriously jeopordize my chances?

my SOP is good and so is my writing sample...

This is not necessarily a bad thing. Directly addressing a weakness in your file is far better than ignoring it. The admission committee will see these incompletes and if it is not addressed, given how competitive applications in philosophy are, then you are at a serious if not damning disadvantage. I've also heard that it is much better if the professors address and excuse certain weaknesses in your file. In you case, personal issues explain the anomalies in your application. I think you should make the professor writing you a letter aware of this fact. It may very well be too late now, but I hope that you've discussed this with your professor.

I do not think that this will hurt your application too much. You still look like a competitive MA candidate with a 3.5 GPA.

Best of luck!

[UnbearableNausea]

my professor said in his recommendation letter he has to write that i have a history of not completing courses. he said it is necessary and that because of it they will take the recommendation more seriously. he said he would not dwell on it and focus on discussing my excellent work, essays, and presentations. he told me to dicuss reasons for some incompletes on my transcripts. now im scared...my gpa is a 3.5 but ive had to retake some courses. my mother was ill and i was away from school alot and had to drop some courses or i failed them...

i plan to address this in my statement.

does anyone have any advice? is this going to seriously jeopordize my chances?

my SOP is good and so is my writing sample...

My two cents likely comes too late, but on most, if not all, of my applications there was an area to indicate unusual circumstances or to clarify weaker elements of your application. Even without those, this is also something that is appropriate to address in your own personal statement, so long as you couch it in positive terms.