Conflict of Interest in LOR?

[Desklamp]

Hello,

One of my letter writers for PhD. program is my current undergraduate research advisor. They extended an invitation to graduate school but I told them that while I was interested, I would also like to apply elsewhere. This person told me they would support me as much as possible, but has also mentioned that his letter would say something to the effect of "They're good and I wish that they would stay here with me and do research". I don't know if I am being paranoid or not because I do believe this person would write me a very strong letter, but this seems like a conflict of interest to me.

Can anyone else share their opinion on this matter? Am I being paranoid?

Thanks.

[TakeruK]

No, this is not a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest in LOR would be if the person was going to purposely sabotage your application through an untrue letter because they didn't want you to leave or because they had another student applying to the same program that they want to succeed instead of you.

Although no one can know for sure what your advisor meant, I would say that it does not sound like they are trying to purposefully harm you. Despite the literal meaning of the words, I think the more common interpretation is that this is meant to be a high compliment. In writing letters of recommendations, some writers will often say something like "If this applicant was a candidate for my program, I would not hesitate to accept them" to indicate that you are strong candidate. i.e. they are not just saying that you're great, they would actually act on it if given the chance.

In any case, no school is going to think "Well, Desklamp is an amazing student but their old advisor wishes Desklamp would stay so I guess we can't accept Desklamp". Even if your advisor was serious, another school isn't going to let your old advisor choose whether or not they will accept you.