Error in Recommendation Letter

[jtown]

i interviewed at uc davis this week and one of the interviewers told me that something written in one of my LORs (about me) isn't true...

my recommender had said that i had some ridiculous streak of good grades but there are a few Bs thrown in the sequence where he said there were all As... anyway, she wanted clarification and all I could really say was that I guess he didnt read my transcript too thoroughly...

my question is whether or not i should send an apology letter to the schools that received that letter... i feel a little embarassed that there's some letter attached to my application that has some blatant non-factual information that is easily refuted by turning to a different part of the application...

[edit:]
btw, it is a 'confidential' letter, so i'm not sure if i'm ever supposed to acknowledge that i know its contents....

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[SailCrazy]

i interviewed at uc davis this week and one of the interviewers told me that something written in one of my LORs (about me) isn't true...

my recommender had said that i had some ridiculous streak of good grades but there are a few Bs thrown in the sequence where he said there were all As... anyway, she wanted clarification and all I could really say was that I guess he didnt read my transcript too thoroughly...

my question is whether or not i should send an apology letter to the schools that received that letter... i feel a little embarassed that there's some letter attached to my application that has some blatant non-factual information that is easily refuted by turning to a different part of the application...

[edit:]
btw, it is a 'confidential' letter, so i'm not sure if i'm ever supposed to acknowledge that i know its contents....

Do you have a premed advisor at your school that you can ask? That would be my first stop.

 

[Khenon]

First . . . Congratulations on the Davis interview! That's awesome!

Second, kill that recommender. Okay I'm kidding, but I'd contact him/her and tell them to change that for future letters (well I guess you may be done using him/her as a reference, but if you do, they need to change that). I honestly don't think you can do anything about this. Your response at the Davis interview was appropriate. By the fact that you signed the confidentiality statement, the adcom knows you had nothing to do with the writing of the letter, so you can't be held responsible for your LOR's statements. I think the only downfall is going to be the committees impression of why you chose this person to write you a letter. I guess it could be construed as you knew you'd get a glowing letter, even if you didn't necessarily deserve it. But again, I don't know that you can avoid this impression at this point. If you pre-emptively apologize, you're raising an instant flag. Too you need to be careful bringing it up because of the confidentiality thing. In summary, I don't think there's anything you can do. It's a tough spot to be in, but it seems that any action you take may work negatively for you. Perhaps someone else has a more constructive remark. I wish you the best in your decision. Take care.

 

[kaikai128]

The error was not as outright wrong in my LOR, but the writer spelled both my 4 letter frist name and 5 letter last name wrong...and I wonder why schools are having trouble finding that LOR. In the end, it was never brought up in any of my interviews--although the content of the rest of the letter was.

I would possibly see if the writer could fix the error and re-send the letter with a cover sheet explaining the error and ask them to replace the previous letter. I don't know how close you are to the writer--but this could possibly be a fix for future interviews.

 

[supersnuffles]

My PI actually kept referring me to "he" instead of "she," which I am, I believe. However, my commitee letter writer noticed this error, contacted the pre-med office, and one of the assistants had to stalk down my advisor, and get him to change my gender. I also don't think he even talked about my research, but just recycled a letter he wrote for another graduate student. I later had him write another letter as an "addendum," because technically I wasn't supposed to know the contents of the letter. So, what I can suggest is either talk to committee, if you have one, or perhaps ask your lor writer to write a revised letter?

 

[fever5]

for future reference:

1) ask the person if they feel comfortable writting a letter about you (if they hesitate don't use them)

2) if you want a well written letter (i.e. non-recycled) give them a booklet about information about you! I.e. past accomplishments, ECs, and a sheet about quality traits you feel you have. NOTE: this does not mean that the referee will USE these traits, it more or less just allows the referee some guidance and provides a small structure from which they can begin a letter...after all try writting a reference letter about yourself and see how long it takes.

Most people do not realize how hard it is to write a reference letter, even when they are the subject. Imagine the difficulty of someone else writting one, especially if they are not creative or enjoy writting (or have time).

 

[jtown]

for future reference:

1) ask the person if they feel comfortable writting a letter about you (if they hesitate don't use them)

2) if you want a well written letter (i.e. non-recycled) give them a booklet about information about you! I.e. past accomplishments, ECs, and a sheet about quality traits you feel you have. NOTE: this does not mean that the referee will USE these traits, it more or less just allows the referee some guidance and provides a small structure from which they can begin a letter...after all try writting a reference letter about yourself and see how long it takes.

Most people do not realize how hard it is to write a reference letter, even when they are the subject. Imagine the difficulty of someone else writting one, especially if they are not creative or enjoy writting (or have time).

these are both good points and i actually did both of them...
the problem was that either i misinformed him (entirely possible) or he only glossed over my transcript (also entirely possible) and was trying to hype me as much as he could...
writing a reference letter is tough. he asked me to write it and i told him that i would rather he write it and i would give him talking points, which is probably where the confusion arose.... i think it'd be a real pain in the ass to get another letter out of him at this point... i wrote what i would send to ad-coms and it sounds pretty good (to me), but i've been to 6 interviews already and that was the first time it was brought up so i'm wondering if that is the sort of thing that is worth explaining in person OR possibly it's something stupid like that that is holding up feedback from other schools (i've been "in committee" at a few places since early august)

i think my only saving grace as far as this is concerned is that he's my PI at a research institution so his letter deals mainly with that... it's a non-profit research institute, so there'd never be any reason for him to see my transcript

 

[fever5]

jtown, I had a feeling from your original post you probably had a laid out approach to getting a letter...however I think a lot of people don't realize how much work a letter is so I added my 2 cents.

I can identify with some of the things you have mentioned, and wish you the best for the rest of the application process.