LORs from postdocs with subpar English

[Scout01]

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Hi everyone,

I work in a medicine research lab a California university. The three researchers that I work for are all postdoctorate fellows and have all agreed to write me my letters if I need them. They are all very great and intelligent people. However, they are all international post-docs who speak and write English kind of awkwardly and with a small to fair amount of grammatical mistakes sometimes. I'm afraid that my LORs will sound awkward and slightly incomprehensible. And it's not like I can proof read and edit the letters for them since I have to waive my rights to seeing the letters.

Will awkward-sounding letters hurt my chances significantly? What should I do?

 

[PharmOl]

The schools might want to verify them, so be prepared to be scrutinized.

 

[Passion4Sci]

I would hope that they would spend a little more time on their LoR such that it wouldn't be so awkward or grammatically incorrect...

Otherwise, yea, they might be subjected to challenge/verification but it shouldn't be and out-and-out problem.

 

[Scout01]

How will they be scrutinized? Through phone, email, ID verification, etc? They're very busy people who are often stressed out about their work, so I want to make the process as easy for them as possible. After all, I'm the one that's receiving the favor from them.

Would it be a better idea to not get LORs from all 3 of them, since they'll most likely be saying the same things about me?
Should I just ask for the LOR from the one with the best English?

 

[bozeefus]

How will they be scrutinized? Through phone, email, ID verification, etc? They're very busy people who are often stressed out about their work, so I want to make the process as easy for them as possible. After all, I'm the one that's receiving the favor from them.

Would it be a better idea to not get LORs from all 3 of them, since they'll most likely be saying the same things about me?
Should I just ask for the LOR from the one with the best English?

i would get LORs from as many different sources as possible

 

[PharmOl]

I don't know how they will be scrutinized. Perhaps, the adcoms will give the people who wrote your letters a call to make sure they are legit. Also, why would you want all your letters come from people of same background? You will be better off asking only one of them and get a couple of pharmacists to write the rest. Of other professors.

 

[tsicamrahp]

If I were in your shoes, I would ask only one of them to write a LOR who will write about your research abilities. Ask the one who best knows your research skills. If you need three, ask for one from a professor who will write about your academic abilities and then the third from another professor or a pharmacist. That way the adcom would most likely focus on the content of the LOR from the postdoc fellow rather than grammatical errors. Just hope the postdoc fellow will forward the LOR to someone to edit before it is sent off. He may actually even send you a copy first to see if you're happy with it. I'd think that if those int'l postdocs do research and also write, they would have someone edit their materials before they are published (that is if they publish).

I asked for a LOR from a professor who was highly intelligent, graduated Summa Cum Laude in a science major. However, his lecture material contained an occasional typo here and there, which I caught most of the time (got an eye for those things). I was at first quite hesitant to ask him for a LOR for those reasons out of fear that the LOR would contain typos. However, he was in the best position to assess my academic abilities so I decided to go with him and asked him. He ended up writing a very good letter, no typos, and gave me a copy when I went to see him at a later time. He mentioned that although I waived my rights to a copy of the LOR, if you ask, most people will give you a copy for your records.

If you're really worried about it, I'm sure you could ask the postdoc fellow for a copy and if it's too terrible to pass on to the schools, just delete it (if you go with PharmCAS, that is) and get another one.

Good luck!