LOR Ethics Question
Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 5:20 pm
First, a little bit of background:
I've been out of undergrad for some time and am a splitter, not an extreme splitter but a splitter nonetheless. Yesterday I met with a former professor to ask for a LOR. I'd already emailed this professor twice before but received no response. In my emails, I had mentioned that I was a former student who wanted to discuss the prospects of his writing me a LOR but that making his office hours, which are scheduled once a week in the afternoon, would be difficult because I live over an hour away from my alma mater and have work in the afternoon. The professor states he is willing to make special appointments under his office hours listing on my UG's website, so I didn't feel that it was inappropriate to ask if he could aside some time on a morning that he had free for me to come see him. Anyways, he never replied, and I finally bit the bullet, took some time off work, and attended his regular office hours yesterday. I brought with me my resume, my unofficial transcripts, a signed LSAC recommender form, and copies of the essays I had written for his class.
My time with my professor was very brief. It went something like this:
P: I didn't remember your name when I read your email, but I remember your face. What grade did you get in my class?
Me: An A.
P: (Without looking at any of the papers I had brought with me.) Well, my standard is if you got an A, I'll write you a letter. When do you need it written by?
Me: August. I'm afraid I no longer have the copies of my essays with their original grades and comments.
P: That won't be a problem. You've only taken one class with me, but I like to be able to say I'm broadly familiar with a student's work when I recommend him. Also, I'm terrible at keeping track of papers. Go home, find one other essay from another class that you've taken, and then mail it to me along with the rest of the papers you have here. Then I will write your letter.
I know that this professor is not going to be writing me the best letter in the world. But even though he was brief, he was unequivocal in his willingness to write the letter once he learned of my grade, so I'm hoping the letter will suffice. Of all my professors, this is the one who I actually had the most interaction with and in whose class I probably did my strongest work. My other academic LOR will be written by a TA who I had several classes with and who thinks very highly of me. I will also have one professional LOR to round out my application. I scored 170+ on the LSAT so my goal is T14.
Now to get to my semi-ethics related question. I am a better writer now than I was as an undergraduate. Looking over my old work, I see misplaced modifiers, incorrect punctuation, typos, and all sorts of other grammatical issues that stand in the way of the essays' coherency. Since I don't have the graded copies anyways, would it be wrong to send my professor revised editions of these essays? These essays already received A's when they were first graded. The content would not change and the revisions I would make should, if anything, make his job easier when he sits down to read these 20+ pages. On the one hand, I feel like revising the essays makes sense because they would be more indicative of the quality of work I will actually produce in law school. On the other hand, doing this without telling him seems a little bit like I'm misrepresenting myself. I am considering emailing him once more and asking him directly what he would prefer. Back when I was actually in his class he was very accommodating, but the trouble I've had recently when emailing him makes me hesitant. I certainly don't want to end up with a LOR with lines like "This student did very strong analytical work in my class but can be indecisive and require too much hand holding at times."
What do you all think?
I've been out of undergrad for some time and am a splitter, not an extreme splitter but a splitter nonetheless. Yesterday I met with a former professor to ask for a LOR. I'd already emailed this professor twice before but received no response. In my emails, I had mentioned that I was a former student who wanted to discuss the prospects of his writing me a LOR but that making his office hours, which are scheduled once a week in the afternoon, would be difficult because I live over an hour away from my alma mater and have work in the afternoon. The professor states he is willing to make special appointments under his office hours listing on my UG's website, so I didn't feel that it was inappropriate to ask if he could aside some time on a morning that he had free for me to come see him. Anyways, he never replied, and I finally bit the bullet, took some time off work, and attended his regular office hours yesterday. I brought with me my resume, my unofficial transcripts, a signed LSAC recommender form, and copies of the essays I had written for his class.
My time with my professor was very brief. It went something like this:
P: I didn't remember your name when I read your email, but I remember your face. What grade did you get in my class?
Me: An A.
P: (Without looking at any of the papers I had brought with me.) Well, my standard is if you got an A, I'll write you a letter. When do you need it written by?
Me: August. I'm afraid I no longer have the copies of my essays with their original grades and comments.
P: That won't be a problem. You've only taken one class with me, but I like to be able to say I'm broadly familiar with a student's work when I recommend him. Also, I'm terrible at keeping track of papers. Go home, find one other essay from another class that you've taken, and then mail it to me along with the rest of the papers you have here. Then I will write your letter.
I know that this professor is not going to be writing me the best letter in the world. But even though he was brief, he was unequivocal in his willingness to write the letter once he learned of my grade, so I'm hoping the letter will suffice. Of all my professors, this is the one who I actually had the most interaction with and in whose class I probably did my strongest work. My other academic LOR will be written by a TA who I had several classes with and who thinks very highly of me. I will also have one professional LOR to round out my application. I scored 170+ on the LSAT so my goal is T14.
Now to get to my semi-ethics related question. I am a better writer now than I was as an undergraduate. Looking over my old work, I see misplaced modifiers, incorrect punctuation, typos, and all sorts of other grammatical issues that stand in the way of the essays' coherency. Since I don't have the graded copies anyways, would it be wrong to send my professor revised editions of these essays? These essays already received A's when they were first graded. The content would not change and the revisions I would make should, if anything, make his job easier when he sits down to read these 20+ pages. On the one hand, I feel like revising the essays makes sense because they would be more indicative of the quality of work I will actually produce in law school. On the other hand, doing this without telling him seems a little bit like I'm misrepresenting myself. I am considering emailing him once more and asking him directly what he would prefer. Back when I was actually in his class he was very accommodating, but the trouble I've had recently when emailing him makes me hesitant. I certainly don't want to end up with a LOR with lines like "This student did very strong analytical work in my class but can be indecisive and require too much hand holding at times."
What do you all think?