LoR questions

[soupy]

I have two quick questions about letters or rec.

1. One of the people writing me a letter does not speak English as his first language. He makes quite a few spelling and grammar mistakes. Is this something I should be concerned about when he writes my letter? I mean, he is very well published and respected and all, so I am very happy to be getting a letter from him. I'm just not sure if any mistakes he makes in the letter will reflect poorly on me.

2. I am also asking a PI for one of the studies I work on, but he is a psychiatrist. He has an MD, not a PhD. This is okay, right?

Thanks!

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[krisrox]

I have two quick questions about letters or rec.

1. One of the people writing me a letter does not speak English as his first language. He makes quite a few spelling and grammar mistakes. Is this something I should be concerned about when he writes my letter? I mean, he is very well published and respected and all, so I am very happy to be getting a letter from him. I'm just not sure if any mistakes he makes in the letter will reflect poorly on me.

2. I am also asking a PI for one of the studies I work on, but he is a psychiatrist. He has an MD, not a PhD. This is okay, right?

Thanks!

A few times professors (all who speak English proficiently) have asked me to read over their letters before they submitted them to make sure everything was what I was looking for. Once a prof misspelled my name and I mentioned it when I handed the letter back. If this prof doesn't ask you to look it over, I would assume that he's going to use all the resources available to him to help him write your letter. If he does ask you to look it over and you do find some mistakes, kindly point them out.

As for the psychiatrist, I would worry as long as he can speak about your research skills.

 

[TuTuPsychL]

I would imagine that your professor probably spends more time revising important documents (i.e LoR, publications) for grammatical errors than class lectures. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

As for the PI, you don't HAVE to have a PhD write your letters. If he can speak about your strengths and of you as a well rounded person, you are way better off than getting a professor with a PhD who doesn't know you as well write you a generic letter.

Best of luck!