Getting a LOR from a Community College Professor

[12345a]

My Genchem professor at my old community college and I have a great relationship and I'm sure that she would write a fantastic LOR for me. Would it look bad that one of my LOR is from a CC professor and not someone from a 4 year?

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[samer saab]

As long as your professor Has a Phd you are fine. I mean think of it this way. Would you rather getting a LOR from a professor at a 4 year university that doesnt know you? or one from a CC professor that knows you well. I would get one from him i mean a Dr is a Dr no matter where he is teaching. Good luck

 

[doc toothache]

One might wonder what a Ph.D. is doing teaching sciences at a CC and why you chose not to seek an lor from a more current professor.

 

[alanan84]

One might wonder what a Ph.D. is doing teaching sciences at a CC and why you chose not to seek an lor from a more current professor.

My Gen chem and Physics professor from junior college both had PhD's in their respective fields. They were excellent and on top of that they were small classes and I was able to develop personal relationships with them.

The Physics professor had worked on a supercollidor project and then in private industry for a number of years. He decided he wanted to teach and the local college gave him the opportunity. His PhD was from Boston College. I got an LOR from him and I currently have one interview. I think it would be better to get a more current LOR from a university setting but you can only do what you can. Due to a fulltime school and work schedule, I don't have a lot of time to schmooze/butt kiss in the professor's office at my university.

 

[doc toothache]

My Gen chem and Physics professor from junior college both had PhD's in their respective fields. They were excellent and on top of that they were small classes and I was able to develop personal relationships with them.

Letters of recommendation are intended to give a critical analysis of the applicant in terms of academics achievement/potential; "personal relationships with them" may tend to blur the evaluation. The key is the weight an evaluation may carry coming from a general chem/physics professor vs an advanced organic/quantum mechanics professor irrespective of presence or absence of a Ph.D..

 

[armorshell]

One might wonder what a Ph.D. is doing teaching sciences at a CC and why you chose not to seek an lor from a more current professor.

Couldn't be more off base. I had a LOR from my community college bio professor, and I got comments at multiple interviews that he had written an excellent LOR. Also, I had taken 2 classes from him, but they were both 2 years prior to when he wrote the letter.

By the way, it's pretty common for Ph.D.s to teach at community colleges, because they're interesting in actually teaching as opposed to frantically writing dozens of grants, grinding out post-doc after post-doc, chasing down down tenure track positions with 1000s of applicants, etc...

In my time at community college, every single science class I took was taught by a Ph.D., and I took all my pre-requisites in CC.

 

[alanan84]

Letters of recommendation are intended to give a critical analysis of the applicant in terms of academics achievement/potential; "personal relationships with them" may tend to blur the evaluation. The key is the weight an evaluation may carry coming from a general chem/physics professor vs an advanced organic/quantum mechanics professor irrespective of presence or absence of a Ph.D..

Well wait a second, when I say "personal relationship" I don't mean that we hung out and played xbox together every weekend. It means that due to a smaller class size, I was able to academically interact more with him. I don't think that clouds any sort of academic critique that he was able to provide.

 

[Vicviper]

Couldn't be more off base. I had a LOR from my community college bio professor, and I got comments at multiple interviews that he had written an excellent LOR. Also, I had taken 2 classes from him, but they were both 2 years prior to when he wrote the letter.

By the way, it's pretty common for Ph.D.s to teach at community colleges, because they're interesting in actually teaching as opposed to frantically writing dozens of grants, grinding out post-doc after post-doc, chasing down down tenure track positions with 1000s of applicants, etc...

In my time at community college, every single science class I took was taught by a Ph.D., and I took all my pre-requisites in CC.

Took the words right out of my mouth, I was in just about the same situation, and my Gchem professor who wrote my letter said the same thing as your middle paragraph there, and he had a Phd from MIT. My letters were from CC professors, and it seemed to work out well.

I couldn't even imagine trying to get a letter from some of my professors at my university when the class had 400 people and there was a line out the door for office hours. I'd be ashamed to have a filler "This student got an A in my class" letter, which I know a number of my friends were forced to get last year.

 

[angelnyc89]

Couldn't be more off base. I had a LOR from my community college bio professor, and I got comments at multiple interviews that he had written an excellent LOR. Also, I had taken 2 classes from him, but they were both 2 years prior to when he wrote the letter.

By the way, it's pretty common for Ph.D.s to teach at community colleges, because they're interesting in actually teaching as opposed to frantically writing dozens of grants, grinding out post-doc after post-doc, chasing down down tenure track positions with 1000s of applicants, etc...

In my time at community college, every single science class I took was taught by a Ph.D., and I took all my pre-requisites in CC.

All my professors were Dr. at my CC, they all had their Ph.D.s. Not just the science prof.

 

[bjhath]

Couldn't be more off base. I had a LOR from my community college bio professor, and I got comments at multiple interviews that he had written an excellent LOR. Also, I had taken 2 classes from him, but they were both 2 years prior to when he wrote the letter.

By the way, it's pretty common for Ph.D.s to teach at community colleges, because they're interesting in actually teaching as opposed to frantically writing dozens of grants, grinding out post-doc after post-doc, chasing down down tenure track positions with 1000s of applicants, etc...

In my time at community college, every single science class I took was taught by a Ph.D., and I took all my pre-requisites in CC.

Adding my 2 cents of agreement to the mix. Most of my CC instuctors had PhDs, however my one LOR from a CC instructor was from one who had a MS. It worked out fine.

 

[doc toothache]

It is good to get a clarification on what a Ph.D. is doing teaching at a cc. Just as not all dental schools, not all universities/community colleges and not all Ph.D.s are created equal. As the number of Ph.D.s has increased over the past four decades so have the number of those teaching at a cc. However, it is unlikely that the majority of those have been involved in the supercollider project, are graduates of MIT and have made the transition from university to jc setting. The experience of the handful that responded does not amount to a hill of beans and it is unlikely to show on anyone's radar screen even when viewed with a scanning electron microscope; they are hardly representative of the over 1600 community colleges and the 6.5 millions students that attend them. A university professor with 400 students per class will undoubtedly see more students in a year than his/her colleague at a cc will see in a decade and you can bet a wisdom tooth that their antennas are always tuned in to the quality of the student body they have since they will, no doubt, be the future chemists, physicists, mathematicians, biologists, professionals and graduate students. It will not take a university/college professor any more time than an adcom would need in an interview to pass judgment on an applicant. But if the belief is that an lor from a cc professor carries as much weight as that from a university professor than it is best to leave it at that.

 

[Smilemoncheri]

Couldn't be more off base. I had a LOR from my community college bio professor, and I got comments at multiple interviews that he had written an excellent LOR. Also, I had taken 2 classes from him, but they were both 2 years prior to when he wrote the letter.

By the way, it's pretty common for Ph.D.s to teach at community colleges, because they're interesting in actually teaching as opposed to frantically writing dozens of grants, grinding out post-doc after post-doc, chasing down down tenure track positions with 1000s of applicants, etc...

In my time at community college, every single science class I took was taught by a Ph.D., and I took all my pre-requisites in CC.

Totally agree, one of my LOR is coming from a PhD prof teaching at a CC. I think as long as the professor can attest to your capacity to learn the material and excel, then it should not matter where they teach.

 

[12345a]

yeah....my genchem prof doesn't have a phd but a masters in orgo from a CSU

The feeling that I'm getting is that LOR aren't really the "make or break" in an application...more like participating in research where a good one will help but a mediocre one (or not doing research) will not hurt...misguided?

 

[2PacClone23]

I need to know the answer to this question too because if it's alright I have like 3-4 more science professors I can ask from. Please someone clarify this!!!

 

[Vicviper]

Other than my Research PI, all of my letters were from CC professors, it's fine.

 

[2PacClone23]

Other than my Research PI, all of my letters were from CC professors, it's fine.

Thanks for this. I can now ask them