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Recommendations from ALL research advisors
- Thread starter CheckMate
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You might want to talk to the PI and explain your situation. That person may be amenable to writing you a positive LOR anyways.
If not, it's not the end of the world. You may have to do some explaining in interviews or even before interviews about why you don't have one. All in all even if you get a decent LOR it's probably better than not having one at all.
If not, it's not the end of the world. You may have to do some explaining in interviews or even before interviews about why you don't have one. All in all even if you get a decent LOR it's probably better than not having one at all.
The only school that I saw that asked for letters from all PIs is U Penn. What are the other schools?
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All schools are going to want to see LORs from all your PIs, unless you have a good excuse. The op may have a good excuse, but it may just be easier and better to see if that old PI will still write them a good letter. If the PI says "I hardly remember you, I'm not writing you a good letter", than I would suggest using the "it was so long ago" excuse 🙂
The one guy that I am hesitant to get a letter from is not a professor. He is an engineer at a national lab. I think that he would write me a great letter, but I don't want to slow down my application. Plus my two other research experiences are much more significant. It would also be my 6th letter and I don't think that it would tell schools anything that they haven't heard in the rest of my letters and application. What should I do?
If you do recommend getting a letter, could I submit as is and just send it to U Penn in a few weeks when I get it?
If you do recommend getting a letter, could I submit as is and just send it to U Penn in a few weeks when I get it?
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I submitted 10 letters with my application, so don't worry about having too many. In any case, call UPenn and see what they have to say. Let us know, because this is probably a question others are asking themselves right now.
I called U Penn today and the lady at admissions said that if I had 5 letters, I didn't have to worry about getting the other letter. When I asked her about what I should put as the reason why he wasn't going to write a letter, she pretty much said that it didn't really matter. I also asked her if it would be ok if I submitted the secondary and packet of letters (already reached U Penn), and then sent the last letter when it was written. She said that that would be fine. I think that I am just going to send the letter to U Penn in about a month and not worry about the letter for the other schools that I have already sent letters to.
