Would I know if I were blackballed?

[Confused2626]

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I'm just curious if I should be out of the clear or not in terms of bad Letters of Recommendation. I have gotten two interviews, does this mean that my LORs shouldn't be anything glaring?

I'm only asking because my advisor read my LORs and thought they were good for the most part, but suggested I didn't turn in one of them. She said the reason being "although I can tell they like you...it just wasn't..." she kind of trailed off and I let her know english wasn't my recommender's first language and she seemed happy with that explanation. I submitted that LOR anyway because it came from an integral part of my background. That was only 1 out of 5 letters though.

Anyway, because I have gotten interviews, should I be in the clear or do schools sometimes not read LORs before granting interviews?

 

[armybound]

Only way to really know is to ask a school you interviewed at (or applied to) after this year if you don't get any acceptances. That's how I found out mine weren't good.

 

[Confused2626]

Only way to really know is to ask a school you interviewed at (or applied to) after this year if you don't get any acceptances. That's how I found out mine weren't good.

Did you get interviews with your bad LORs?

 

[LizzyM]

Either you were offered interviews before anyone read the LOR (it can happen) or the LOR doesn't bad mouth you but is poorly written and might reflect poorly on the writer.

 

[dragonfly99]

LizzyM is probably right.
However, agree w/above advice of other poster who said call the schools if you don't get in, and ask what the problem was.

 

[armybound]

Did you get interviews with your bad LORs?

yes

 

[Confused2626]

Either you were offered interviews before anyone read the LOR (it can happen) or the LOR doesn't bad mouth you but is poorly written and might reflect poorly on the writer.

I am thinking it was just poorly written...I turned it in despite my advisor's suggestion because I figured it wouldn't look poorly on me, just the writer. But I still hate knowing that there are 5 letters about me and I don't really know what they say....just hoping that because I have interviews, they must not be that bad.

 

[cheekiemunky]

This kind of thing scares me. Are there really professors that would agree to write you a letter of recommendation and then badmouth you in the letter? Why wouldn't they just say "no?" I don't understand what would motivate someone to do that, really...

 

[GregoryMD]

This kind of thing scares me. Are there really professors that would agree to write you a letter of recommendation and then badmouth you in the letter? Why wouldn't they just say "no?" I don't understand what would motivate someone to do that, really...

Extreme disdain?

 

[GoSpursGo]

This kind of thing scares me. Are there really professors that would agree to write you a letter of recommendation and then badmouth you in the letter? Why wouldn't they just say "no?" I don't understand what would motivate someone to do that, really...

It's really your responsibility to make sure you ask people to write on your behalf who can say good things. That's why you always ask specifically, "Can you write me a strong letter of recommendation," not just, "Will you write me a letter."

 

[mirrorpair]

/tangent

I've heard of a case (not in medicine) of a pretty famous guy getting screwed because of a bad LOR. He applied for grad school and was Princeton/Harvard/MIT material but he got into UC Santa Cruz (ranked 80th or something); turned out one of his letter writers didn't like him and purposely tanked his application. He went to UCSC and found out what happened; he reapplied and got into MIT the next year. He eventually got tenured at Berkeley and everything worked out.

/end tangent

 

[Beren]

/tangent

I've heard of a case (not in medicine) of a pretty famous guy getting screwed because of a bad LOR. He applied for grad school and was Princeton/Harvard/MIT material but he got into UC Santa Cruz (ranked 80th or something); turned out one of his letter writers didn't like him and purposely tanked his application. He went to UCSC and found out what happened; he reapplied and got into MIT the next year. He eventually got tenured at Berkeley and everything worked out.

/end tangent

<tangent>
Shouldn't the tags look like this?
</tangent>

 

[flip26]

It's really your responsibility to make sure you ask people to write on your behalf who can say good things. That's why you always ask specifically, "Can you write me a strong letter of recommendation," not just, "Will you write me a letter."

Totally agree. You must ask if they can write a strong letter. Do it in person - watch their reaction, check their body language - email is not the way to go on this if you want to gauge the writer's interest in you.

 

[dotdash]

Why in the world would you not follow your advisor's recommendation? I doubt he/she would recommend you hold back a letter just for grammatical mistakes or other easily-dismissed reason.

 

[Spiker]

What do you think about this strategy....have them write recommendation for scholarship and summer internship prior to your med school recommendation.