Potentially negative LOR? Need advice.

[Fargofargo]

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So this letter is from my anatomy professor. I got good grades from his class and even TAed for him. Got to know him personally and really got to know each other really well.


When I graduated, I told him that I will be taking a gap year. I also let him know that I will be requesting a LOR from him a year later. He agreed and told me to keep in touch by email.

When it came to LOR writing time, I sent him an email updating him on my life and stuff. I moved away from my college town. However he didn't reply to my first request. So I continued to send him friendly and casual update emails, about 4-5 emails, from 9/2013 to 3/2014. However, he never replied to any. I even called him office. I knew that he is a very busy guy, recently just took on the job as the department advisor and stuff.


Then randomly in 4/2014 I see that he uploaded the LOR to interfolio. I right away sent him a thank you email and mailed him a thank you card as well. He didn't reply to those either.



Should I be worried here? I feel like he might just got annoyed by me and just wrote a letter to get me off his back. But he doesn't seem like the type to do that. Although even when I was back in school, he was pretty hard to reach via email.


I also read on SDN that people have sent the LOR to their pre med advisors to have them look at to see if it's a positive, negative or neutral letter, without disclosing any content. Anyone know of this?


Thanks for your input!

 

[AlteredScale]

So this letter is from my anatomy professor. I got good grades from his class and even TAed for him. Got to know him personally and really got to know each other really well.


When I graduated, I told him that I will be taking a gap year. I also let him know that I will be requesting a LOR from him a year later. He agreed and told me to keep in touch by email.

When it came to LOR writing time, I sent him an email updating him on my life and stuff. I moved away from my college town. However he didn't reply to my first request. So I continued to send him friendly and casual update emails, about 4-5 emails, from 9/2013 to 3/2014. However, he never replied to any. I even called him office. I knew that he is a very busy guy, recently just took on the job as the department advisor and stuff.


Then randomly in 4/2014 I see that he uploaded the LOR to interfolio. I right away sent him a thank you email and mailed him a thank you card as well. He didn't reply to those either.



Should I be worried here? I feel like he might just got annoyed by me and just wrote a letter to get me off his back. But he doesn't seem like the type to do that. Although even when I was back in school, he was pretty hard to reach via email.


I also read on SDN that people have sent the LOR to their pre med advisors to have them look at to see if it's a positive, negative or neutral letter, without disclosing any content. Anyone know of this?


Thanks for your input!

Try contacting him again to see if you can see if he wrote you a GOOD LOR.

If he doesn't respond then I wouldn't use it. Better to be safe! Sorry to hear about this predicament BTW, not too fun to go through that :/

In lieu of this, I highly doubt he gave you a negative response. Especially with you relationship with him beforehand.

 

[RLU1223]

What a jerk head! Try to get your pre-med adviser to read it and tell you if it's positive. I had it easy because I had a pre-med committee and my adviser told me my letters were good. Good Luck.

 

[67552931811]

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[Fargofargo]

Ya... It's a weird situation. I guess I will call my pre med advisor tomorrow to see if she's willing to do such thing for me. My school doesn't do committee letter so idk it's all up to whether she think it's ethical to read it over or not.



Thanks ya'll!

 

[czastrow]

similar situation to me. my ocher professor said he would write me an LOR. Took a year and a half and a ton of emails just to get a single response from him. Told me he already wrote it, but he didn't. Went to his office, picked up my letters and off I went. Had someone read one, and it was a great letter!

 

[Fargofargo]

Ya I'm gonna have faith in humanity so I'm just gonna go with it.

I highly doubt my teacher would take the time to write a negative letter and to sabotage my life lol


Thank ya'll for the inputs!

 

[Doctoblast]

Honestly, sometimes when people email me or send me random messages that aren't crucial to what I'm doing, I don't resound. Not because I don't like the person or am annoyed, but just because I'm busy and don't have time. Maybe he's glad to hear about your success, but just didn't feel the need to respond.

You know him better than all of us, so I think if you had a positive relationship with him and he previously agreed to send in a LOR for you then you have nothing to worry about! I think it would be really cruel for someone to send in a bad LOR for someone who helped him by being a TA and got a good grade in their class over a couple emails. I think you'll be fine! Good luck!

 

[GameTheory29]

I think you're lucky that he actually did end up writing a letter, and just use your best judgment to use it or not. Even if you're away from your college town, if you are ever nearby (or roadtrip it) you should drop in and see how he responds to seeing you if you are really unsure.

I kinda gave up on a professor who really liked me and we got along well in a class. His role in the school increased as he went from professor to dean and it was so much work just to get into contact with him. I ran into him in person, he agreed, then I emailed and he never responded to any of those so I called his office and we talked and he agreed again but once again never responded to my emails afterwards. He's a busy guy and I figured it was best to let it go. It would've been a great rec but sometimes things just work out that way and it's no one's fault. I ended up getting multiple letters from doctors where I work so everything works out for the best (as it will for you)

 

[animula]

I'd be careful here. He might have uploaded something generic, or he may have been just too busy and might have uploaded a good letter. Its hard to say - one of my professors was a b... and she would actually write negative letters so I was very careful not to ask her. Normally, people just say they are not comfortable doing that, but some say they will write you one and send a negative one. I would not call to ask if he wrote a good letter, that would be just offensive, but if you genuinely believe you did a good job for him, why should he write you a negative one.