Recommender Openly Voices Reservations: A Deal Breaker?

[silvercat]

I am currently in a PhD program in History, but I have long realized that my real passion is for literature and languages and that I cannot see myself as a professional historian. Part of this decision was sparked when a professor of history advised me not to refer to some of my favorite poets in a paper, even though these references were quite appropriate to my argument. There is a professor in Comparative Lit. in Boston who has urged me on a number of occasions to apply to his institution. When I told this professor I was going to apply he was happy and assured me that he would give it the utmost attention. In other words, I have a great shot of getting in.

 

After submitting his recommendation for this application, my professor told me that he had voiced serious misgivings in his letter. The misgivings were twofold: 1.) he thought the professor who advised me away from literary references was wrong to do so, which means I am basing my decision to apply elsewhere on misinformation and 2.) he thinks I can do the same project I plan to do at the other institution where I am now with the comp. lit. professor as an external adviser. He also said that the department would hate to lose me. This, according to him, would be the "best of both worlds." Personally, I think that these misgivings are, at least partly, motivated by departmental territoriality on his part and also partly by his lack of knowledge about how serious I actually am in my vocational questions.

 

My query has two parts. First, I would like to know, generally speaking, how much weight recommendations carry with respect to the whole package (I know this is an impossible question to answer). Second, I want to know if my professor's misgivings seem to be a deal-breaker. I know this professor thinks very highly of my work and wants me to stay, so the misgivings were not directed at me or the quality of my work but at my motivation and the conditions under which I applied.

 

All other parts of my app. are in top condition: very high GRE scores, 2 forthcoming publications, two other good recs., many international conferences, and so forth. Given the whole app. and the professor at the receiving school and his avowed support, what weight do you think my professor's recommendation will hold among all the other considerations?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

[+Whiskey]

I'm not an expert on LOR etiquette or anything, but based on what I've been told and what I've read in the chronicles of higher ed. forums I think it's generally considered poor form to write blatantly negative letters and reflects at least as poorly on the letter writer as the student. Given how expensive and high-stakes the application process is, professors who don't have anything nice to say usually either decline to write when asked or write lukewarm, strictly factual letters and let ad comms read between the lines. I'm assuming the lit professor knows you'd be leaving another program to join his or her's and that your current advisors might not be overjoyed at such a move, and has already considered the implications of that decision, without receiving a negative letter. If your other letters are great, the more objective parts of your application are impressive, and you were urged to apply by a professor who was aware of the situation, I can't imagine the negative letter would be a deal breaker. But again, take my advice with a grain of salt.  

Edited January 7, 2013 by srkr

[ridofme]

That's pretty low of the professor to sabotage your application. He certainly must know that a rec letter that explicitly voices reservations does not bode well. What kind of relationship does he think you two will have in the future if you end up staying in your current program? His actions seem short-sighted at best. If he thinks that you could pursue your modified research interests in your current program, he should have talked to you about that when you approached him for the letter! Sheesh.

 

I am hopeful for you that the adcomms will be more forgiving in this case because the referee clearly has some motivation to keep you from transferring. This is a very unique situation. But letters of recommendation, from my understanding, do carry a lot of weight in this process. Unfortunately, I think that this bad letter has the potential to bring up some legitimate questions in the minds of the adcomms about why you are switching fields in the middle of a PhD. Hopefully this is something you have explained to their satisfaction in your SOP and to the Comparative Lit. prof who will be advocating for you.

[TakeruK]

I think it's pretty silly for a prof to try to tell the other school's adcomm what he thinks YOU want to do! I don't think reasonable admissions committee will read your prof's letter and decide that your prof knows better than you about your own future! So, I think they will probably just ignore that part / read between the lines and infer that this prof is being selfish because he wants to keep you. I still think it's a bad thing for your own supervisor to do, since it creates a weird situation but I don't think it's an automatic deal-breaker!

 

While applying to grad school, I learned that there could be a lot of history between professors at different schools. Imagine how the prof at the other school would feel when he reads your supervisor's letter about how he was "wrong". I think it was unprofessional of your supervisor to have potentially used your LOR as a means to make an attack on someone else. 

 

The right/professional thing to do, if your supervisor had misgivings about your application to Boston was to talk to you about it in person, privately, before you submitted the application. Maybe even let you know that he cannot write you a good letter. But, the best thing for a supervisor/mentor to do is to act like an (academic) "parent" and support you in your own career decisions. Just my thoughts!

[silvercat]

Thanks for everyone's instructive feedback. The only content of his letter that I know about are his misgivings. For all I know, he could have relegated these to a hesitation clause at the end of a long letter full of praise. Or not, I just don't know. He spent is entire career at Oxford and was bred in the sort of sickle-tongued culture of cordial disagreement and brutal wit that Hugh Trevor Roper and his ilk flourished in. He's written upwards of sixty books, and I think he feels that he can say exactly what he thinks. When he praises he lays it on thick; when he criticizes you wish you didn't exist. In fact, a friend of mine was a teaching assistant for him last year and told me that he once wrote nothing on a student's paper until at the very bottom it said: "valueless." I agree that it is a bit presumptuous of him to assume that he can discern my vocation better than I can -- that is, to say that my judgment is misguided is to assume that he is in a correctly informed position from which he can make a judgment in my stead. It doesn't matter; if I am not admitted this time, I will simply opt for the masters and apply to a bunch of comp. lit. programs next year. In that case, no one will be able to question my motivation. He also told me that, in his experience, I wouldn't find Harvard amiable unless I am "cozy among vipers." I said that I've never met a viper but I can't imagine that he or she would be friendly company. I should have said, "and what kind of recommendation does a viper write?"

[Angua]

I just wanted to add that, in the grand scheme of things, the "misgivings" here really aren't that terrible.  I totally agree with everyone that it was really shady to choose to voice them in a LOR instead of in a conversation with you.  But if I was reading that letter, and it was otherwise positive about you, I would read those two comments as indicating that he wanted to keep you -- which would be a good sign.  And if you are (as I understand it) in field X, applying to field Y, and your letter from someone in field X says "Silvercat can do field Y while in field X, so I don't think he should transfer,"  I would think that the professor in field Y might logically think: if he wants to do Y, and I want to do Y, why should he do Y in X when he can do Y in Y?   Er, if that makes sense.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Angua

[silvercat]

You know, that was the initial intuition I had, Angua. It wasn't until I started seeing words like "sabotage" and "shady" that I started to reconsider. Whatever the case, the admissions committee will decide as it decides. Hypothesizing over the results is as effective as burning a leg of calf on a spit to propitiate Apollo hoping to change the direction of the sun. Though I like barbecues, I wonder if they really work. So, I'll do as all must and...wait. Thanks!

Edited January 11, 2013 by silvercat