Evaluation letter questions

[doglova]

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[Catalystik]

So I had a couple questions about LORs:
1. If the professor [redacted]

2. How much will it [redacted]

1. Yes.

2. As long as it's not negative, it won't hurt you, and it satisfies the requirement for a science faculty letter. If it says anything that raises a red flag, you don't want to use it. If you aren't sure of the negative connotations that might be inferred from some of the phrases, you can ask here later about it. If you feel it's lukewarm, you can still store it with a letter service, but not use it if you get stronger letters later.

 

[doglova]

Thank you for the response. Going off of that if I want some commentary about other stuff I did in her course added in, is this ethical and what’s the most polite way to ask? For example if I sent her my transcript and want her to say I have an excellent record within the chem department or something about my interpersonal skills.

 

[Catalystik]

Going off of that if I want some commentary about other stuff I did in her course added in, is this ethical what’s the most polite way to ask?

You could edit a copy of the letter and ask how she'd feel about adding the extra material. But be careful to speak in her voice. Give her permission to refuse if she thinks it would be too much work to edit.

Or if you don't have a copy, write out what you'd like to have her mention and humbly inquire if she would look it over and consider inserting some of the suggestions.

 

[doglova]

I actually read it and it’s not too bad in the sense she wrote a hodgepodge of positive adjectives basically saying the same thing over and over again. Also Im not trying to sound conceited at all, but it seems she basically thesaurused the word good and wrote the same sentence repeatedly to fill a page although I guess she wrote positive things about why I would be a good doctor. But I don’t have much of a choice since I don’t know that many of my professors and she teaches orgo which is a notable premed class.

Tl;dr If the quality of English of a LOR is very poor would that negatively impact my application? I could try to correct it but I’m afraid it would offend my professor if I sent an edited version back to her correcting her grammar.

 

[Catalystik]

I actually read it and it’s not too bad in the sense she wrote a hodgepodge of positive adjectives basically saying the same thing over and over again. Also Im not trying to sound conceited at all, but it seems she basically thesaurused the word good and wrote the same sentence repeatedly to fill a page although I guess she wrote positive things about why I would be a good doctor. But I don’t have much of a choice since I don’t know that many of my professors and she teaches orgo which is a notable premed class.

Tl;dr If the quality of English of a LOR is very poor would that negatively impact my application? I could try to correct it but I’m afraid it would offend my professor if I sent an edited version back to her correcting her grammar.

Adcomms will not hold her more limited ability to write the English language against you. I agree it would be inappropriate to correct her grammar, unless she asks you.