LOR Advice: Somewhat Unique Situation

[pepesilvia23]

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I have been working in a middle school special ed program for the past 4 summers under the supervision of my former high school football coach, who is also a special ed teacher. I asked him to write me a letter of recommendation, and he sent me the first draft of the letter for comments/criticisms.

After reading the letter, the one concern I have is that he spent a paragraph talking about his experience coaching me. The majority of the letter is talking about our professional relationship, and what he says in the paragraph about coaching me is flattering, but I am nervous that if he includes that paragraph adcoms may look at it as a character letter, rather than a strong letter from a work supervisor.

Should I tell him to focus more on our professional relationship?

 

[gyngyn]

We are looking for letters of evaluation. Send him this: https://www.aamc.org/download/349990/data/lettersguidelinesbrochure.pdf

 

[pepesilvia23]

We are looking for letters of evaluation. Send him this: https://www.aamc.org/download/349990/data/lettersguidelinesbrochure.pdf

He used the brochure to write the letter, and mentions some of the headings in the coaching paragraph. The paragraph is fairly objective, my concern is more that coaching may be too personal of a relationship, and also that the coaching was done when I was in high school. I was considering just asking him to add on the qualities that he mentioned in the coaching paragraph to the rest of the letter which talks about our professional relationship, provided that these qualities are still applicable. Do you think that this would be a good idea?

 

[gyngyn]

He used the brochure to write the letter, and mentions some of the headings in the coaching paragraph. The paragraph is fairly objective, my concern is more that coaching may be too personal of a relationship, and also that the coaching was done when I was in high school. I was considering just asking him to add on the qualities that he mentioned in the coaching paragraph to the rest of the letter which talks about our professional relationship, provided that these qualities are still applicable. Do you think that this would be a good idea?

At some point you just have to let it go.
You are privileged to know the content.

 

[pepesilvia23]

At some point you just have to let it go.
You are privileged to know the content.

Alright, that sounds good. Thanks for the reply!

 

[bbbcccppp]

I think that a letter that feels like it's from him is what counts. I think it is an advantage if he feels strongly about your character and then expresses it in his words. Non packaged in other words.


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