Denied LOR...out of spite?

[Loric]

My best reccomendation came from a professor who wrote on my final paper in my final class with him.. "I'm really disappointed in you" and gave me a C.

 

He also wrote on my rec letter about how my other papers were well above what he expected from an undergraduate, that i was well suited for graduate study, and that he admired my designs and work that he saw outside of his class. This is the PhD from beloved Berkeley.

 

The OP has suggested that the person he asked had a good bit of knowledge of him as an applicant and student outside of the one class.  It is just one class. A reccomender is not just supposed to talk about your class work.

 

One of my other rec's is the head of the department/college and I never had a "class" wih him but worked with him on various projects. Is he not a valid rec? All he knows is the stuff I did outside of my classes.

[Loric]

I suppose what i'm trying to say is that as an instructor you can give someone the grade they earned - and yet still respect them as a person and for their academic abilities or potential.

 

As a TA/GA and "co-instructor" I've straight up failed kids for not reaching the requirements as laid out in the syllabus. They may have done great work for what they did though, and I'd have no problem reccomending them if their work was good enough and they showed the right sort of potential. Failing (ok honestly moreso just a "poor" grade, i'm rarely mean enough to fail someone - you have to earn failure) in that sense was often a matter of circumstance and sitatuation. You miss the mandatory lab periods I can't exactly pass you.

 

And i may not have written anyone's letter of rec, I have been the person the "kinda lazy" professor had assign the underclassmen their stipends, scholarships, and lab/project assignments for the next year. I have given the "actual good" student wih a poor grade the position and money before the "letter grade good" student who was actually very lackluster in skill.

Edited December 10, 2013 by Loric

[fuzzylogician]

The OP has suggested that the person he asked had a good bit of knowledge of him as an applicant and student outside of the one class.  It is just one class. A reccomender is not just supposed to talk about your class work.

 

If I were writing a LOR I'd have to write about my opinion of the applicant as formed through all our interactions. The OP may be smart and knowledgeable but also slacked off in class and did not take advantage of the opportunity to rectify their grade. Overall, if that were the extent of my interactions with a student, I would not be able to write that student a strong letter. I'm not even sure it'd be terribly positive, unless I knew of a good reason for the low grade and the subsequent behavior, and the student actually demonstrated the level of knowledge and enthusiasm they think they did.

[Jungshin]

No, it is not a joke.  I expected her, or anyone of the others, to simply say "no" if they were not interested. While I respect her response, ultimately being that it was honest, I did find it a bit snide.   Perhaps that is just my own sensitivity, hence why I asked if anyone else had been in a similar situation.  

 

 

Well I'm sorry about how it turned out then.

 

Since you did mentioned it (it being sensitivity), just an advice from someone who has been through grad school by research, you should get used to that feeling of inferiority. Supervisors will mock you left and right whether it's intentional or not (in most cases, they know exactly well what their saying and implying). It's up to you to rise above and demonstrate scientifically that you're capable of research.

 

PhDcomics will shed some light into this. 

 

Again best wishes on your applications. 

[Loric]

I dunno - in the end I feel it's justified to think someone who knows you on any level personally outside of class (and knows you can accomplish the task at hand) then turning around and refusing to reccomend you is being a jerk.

 

It's not like a B- is a terrible grade. If i could even remember my undergrad GPA i think it might be a B-.

[Jungshin]

I dunno - in the end I feel it's justified to think someone who knows you on any level personally outside of class (and knows you can accomplish the task at hand) then turning around and refusing to reccomend you is being a jerk.

 

It's not like a B- is a terrible grade. If i could even remember my undergrad GPA i think it might be a B-.

 

I think a jerk would be someone who says they'll be happy to write one for you, only to submit a terrible letter that you could have received from 'that' prof down the hall.

 

In most recommendation letters, the professor has to categorize the student of interest into percentiles based on academic performance as objectively as they can. top 5%, 10%, 20%, 40%, and so on. Hard to say what the class average was, but at most universities, a B- wouldn't stand in a good category. 

 

And honestly, we'll never really know what this professor is thinking. We're only hearing one side of the story here. 

Edited December 10, 2013 by Jungshin

[Loric]

I think a jerk would be someone who says they'll be happy to write one for you, only to submit a terrible letter that you could have received from 'that' prof down the hall.

 

And honestly, we'll never really know what this professor is thinking. We're only hearing one side of the story here. 

 

I'm fairly sure some social dictate justifies us believing him implicitly as he represents "our struggle" and she represents the elite looking down on us and metting out little letters of reccomendation that could save or sink our careers.... No no.. no blood lines of social strata forming there,,