2 Strong LORs or 3 (2 strong, 1 unsure)
Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:00 pm
If you guys had the choice, which would you choose: having 2 (probably) Strong LORs or 3 LORs (2 which are probably strong, but 1 you're not sure of)?
I've heard a lot of horror stories about LORs, so I decided to have a "back-up" LOR, just in case. I took a small seminar, during one of my fall semesters (it was about ten of us, and we met 3 hours a week). Actually ended up volunteering on a project related to the seminar after the class. The prof. in general seems to be like one of the professors who really care about her former students doing well, and she has wrote a number of letters for the other students in the program, who know her just as well/not that well as I do. She was overall willing and interested in seeing where my plans were going, and agreed to write the strong letter I asked about...
The only thing is, when it actually comes down to it. We barely know each other. I don't think she would've agreed to write the letter, if it was a generic (possibly harmful) one, but I'd never know, since I waived my rights to see it. I'm just debating, because I have seem professors write generic "oh Susie was in my class, got an A, did good, she'd be wonderful"... Would having 1 generic letter be harmful if the other 2 were probably strong?
What should I do?
I've heard a lot of horror stories about LORs, so I decided to have a "back-up" LOR, just in case. I took a small seminar, during one of my fall semesters (it was about ten of us, and we met 3 hours a week). Actually ended up volunteering on a project related to the seminar after the class. The prof. in general seems to be like one of the professors who really care about her former students doing well, and she has wrote a number of letters for the other students in the program, who know her just as well/not that well as I do. She was overall willing and interested in seeing where my plans were going, and agreed to write the strong letter I asked about...
The only thing is, when it actually comes down to it. We barely know each other. I don't think she would've agreed to write the letter, if it was a generic (possibly harmful) one, but I'd never know, since I waived my rights to see it. I'm just debating, because I have seem professors write generic "oh Susie was in my class, got an A, did good, she'd be wonderful"... Would having 1 generic letter be harmful if the other 2 were probably strong?
What should I do?