Teacher no longer lecturing in this uni

[Rising]

Hello,

I was planning on asking my Russian language teacher to write one of the recommendation letters I need (for a MA program with Russian/Eastern European concentration). However, she left uni in the beginning of this academic year. I am sure that if I ask her for a recommendation letter, she'd definitely write one for me but I don't think she has access to her uni e-mail anymore, so it will probably be her personal e-mail address in the application. What should I do in this situation? I did really well in her classes and her LoR will be a very strong one but I am worried it might rather have a negative effect on my application. Does anyone have experience with dilemmas of this type? 

Thank you!

[Keya]

 Hi,

I don't ahve any experience in LoRs, really, but I have been obsessing over my applications for months now. I have spoken to several people about each step of the process and hope that I can be of some help.

 

I did really well in her classes and her LoR will be a very strong one but I am worried it might rather have a negative effect on my application.

Why do you think this? I don't see any reason why there would be a negative effect. Your teacher has presumably left to teach somewhere else, or for some other reason. In any case, she was your teacher for the course, and if the course is related to what you want to study ahead, you shouldn't hesitate to ask for a letter regardless of what the professor is doing at this time.

[Rising]

 Hi,

I don't ahve any experience in LoRs, really, but I have been obsessing over my applications for months now. I have spoken to several people about each step of the process and hope that I can be of some help.

 

Why do you think this? I don't see any reason why there would be a negative effect. Your teacher has presumably left to teach somewhere else, or for some other reason. In any case, she was your teacher for the course, and if the course is related to what you want to study ahead, you shouldn't hesitate to ask for a letter regardless of what the professor is doing at this time.

Hi Keya,

Thank you for your reply. Well, she had to leave cause her contract was over and the uni didn't renew it. Currently, she is not teaching anywhere. I am worried it might have a negative effect on my application because a number of unis have it written in their admission pages that the recommendation letters should be sent from a professional/uni e-mail address. Guess it is a kind of safety measure for them to be sure that there are no fake recommendations or at least that they are limited to minimum. Anyway, I was just wondering, if anyone else has been in the same situation?
 

[Eigen]

In general, I would suggest getting recommendations from full-time, tenure track faculty members rather than adjuncts/lecturers, as they will carry less weight. 

That said, if the person who knows you and your work the best is an adjunct, then ask them and shore it up with two other references who are TT/tenured.