Professor Messed up on LOR. Advice

[osujic1]

Hey guys Im a bit peeved and don't really know what to do. Not sure if this is the right thread but here goes...


I have a pretty good relationship with on of my professors. She is really knowledgeable and I did well in her senior bio course and asked her to write me a letter of recommendation for a few of my graduate schools. She asked for a sample and I said I would I email her a letter my other professor had written and sent me the semester before.
Sofar I have only sent in two applications, and so she has sent in two letters via invitation links. I waived my rights to see her letter having faith in her Ph.D and professionalism. When I asked her to submit a few more letters I needed for some summer research programs, she told me she would just forward me the letter and I could send them in myself. Sounded like an okay deal at the time. When she forwarded me back the letter she had been using, I was very pleased with what I had read except that when I scrolled all the way down was the initial letter I had sent her as a template from my french professor the semester before. My heart was pounding. I was almost positive she sent in both letters to the two schools but then thought "no way". When I confronted her she looked again and saw that she had in fact made a mistake. Now Im super nervous. Wont they look at it like what is this as though something funny has occurred and hold this against me? she also sent me the emails from a non .edu account which I know from conversation she forwards all of her mail to. if she submitted my rec letters from that account (it was a gmail account) the school may dismiss her as a credible recommender or am I overthinking all of this? I just feel like the school might find her letter to be invalid. Id call the two schools myself but also dont know if thats a good idea for me to do since I waived my rights and really shouldn't know what she wrote in the first place. Also it might look kind of sketchy if Im calling to correct a letter of recombination sent in for me. I am not sure what to say and am not sure if the school will hold this against me. Thoughts anyone?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[bananafish94]

I'm sorry this happened to you. It's not your fault at all. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but it will probably be held against you. Just make sure the same thing doesn't happen at the other schools!

 

[Lawpy]

What a difficult post to read (as @Ismet would say, the lack of commas can be rather troublesome )

I don't think you can do anything at the risk of breaking confidentiality to the schools you sent the mistaken letter. Rather, I think your adviser/letter writer can call the schools personally and inform them about the mistake made, although I'm not sure how much it can help

 

[osujic1]

What a difficult post to read (as @Ismet would say, the lack of commas can be rather troublesome )

I don't think you can do anything at the risk of breaking confidentiality to the schools you sent the mistaken letter. Rather, I think your adviser/letter writer can call the schools personally and inform them about the mistake made, although I'm not sure how much it can help

sorry about typos, I was typing super fast. Im nervous because the two schools I applied to first were the ones I wanted to get into the most (Georgetown and Tulane). I want to fix what she has done but every way I think of intervening seems to make a bigger mess..any other thoughts anyone?

 

[osujic1]

Do you guys think Ill be in trouble for giving her the sample letter from my other professor? or does that kind of think not matter?

 

[bananafish94]

What kind of graduate school are you applying to?

 

[osujic1]

Bridge Programs. Georgetown postbacc and Tulane one year Masters in Cell and Molecular Biology. I guess I should add that I'm currently a non matriculated student in the Masters in Biomedical Sciences Program at Rutgers New Brunswick. If I maintain a 3.0 gpa I will be be able to matriculate in in the Fall semester and finish next spring. However Id need to retake my MCAT ideally for next summer and this program doesn't have any MCAT prep despite having a high matriculation rate into the med school from the program, (of course conditional on mcat scores).

I liked the Georgetown program because its one year, (I'd start in August and finish in May) and the courses I take during the one year I was told are often waived so that I do not have to retake them during my first year of medical school. I feel like this would big in helping me get back on track since Im a bit behind.

Tulane's program was is considerably cheaper then Georgetown and while they do not waive the classes for first year med students they incorporate MCAT prep which I desperately need since my study methods were clearly inadequate.

Of course all of this is much more then what I had initially asked for out of this forum but that's essentially the whole picture. Id post my undergrad stats but Im not really looking for advice based off of my stats regarding my chances of getting in. More so about what has occurred with my lor. Maybe Ill make a new forum asking for more advice if I should even pursue the other two programs anymore let alone the ones I have yet to submit applications for...*sigh* I should be studying

 

[Lawpy]

sorry about typos, I was typing super fast. Im nervous because the two schools I applied to first were the ones I wanted to get into the most (Georgetown and Tulane). I want to fix what she has done but every way I think of intervening seems to make a bigger mess..any other thoughts anyone?

Do you guys think Ill be in trouble for giving her the sample letter from my other professor? or does that kind of think not matter?

If confidentiality is maintained, I don't see how you would be in trouble for a letter that your writer messed up (because you never had access to the letters in the first place). Admissions wouldn't know that you gave a sample letter from another professor to your writer. If anything, your writer gets the blame for being careless but I'm not sure how it would affect you.

@mimelim could you clarify?

 

[osujic1]

If confidentiality is maintained, I don't see how you would be in trouble for a letter that your writer messed up (because you never had access to the letters in the first place). Admissions wouldn't know that you gave a sample letter from another professor to your writer. If anything, your writer gets the blame for being careless but I'm not sure how it would affect you.

@mimelim could you clarify?

I don't follow. Essentially what she sent in were two letters of rec from two different people (herself and my french professor). Both ended with "sincerely Mrs. X or Mr. Y" on the two different rec letters which make it blatant that the two separate letters are from two different people. To me it just looks super ugly. I suppose your right though that they would never know Im the one who supplied her with the second letter but I still feel bad and like I should be doing something to remedy the situation. I will go to her again but my hope is that they just call her to clarify what happened since she left her contact information in the letter.

 

[Lawpy]

I don't follow. Essentially what she sent in were two letters of rec from two different people (herself and my french professor). Both ended with "sincerely Mrs. X or Mr. Y" on the two different rec letters which make it blatant that the two separate letters are from two different people. To me it just looks super ugly. I suppose your right though that they would never know Im the one who supplied her with the second letter but I still feel bad and like I should be doing something to remedy the situation. I will go to her again but my hope is that they just call her to clarify what happened since she left her contact information in the letter.

Can your letter writer update the schools with a correct letter (preferably on Monday)? This issue is really managed privately between the letter writer and the schools, because you aren't supposed to know what the letter contents say.

 

[osujic1]

I don't follow. Essentially what she sent in were two letters of rec from two different people (herself and my french professor). Both ended with "sincerely Mrs. X or Mr. Y" on the two different rec letters which make it blatant that the two separate letters are from two different people. To me it just looks super ugly. I suppose your right though that they would never know Im the one who supplied her with the second letter but I still feel bad and like I should be doing something to remedy the situation.

Can your letter writer update the schools with a correct letter (preferably on Monday)? This issue is really managed privately between the letter writer and the schools, because you aren't supposed to know what the letter contents say.

I could ask but the correct letter would basically just be resending her letter without the other letter and they already have that. You think it would help?

 

[Lawpy]

I could ask but the correct letter would basically just be resending her letter without the other letter and they already have that. You think it would help?

Yeah i believe so. The letter writer would probably have to send an email to the schools apologizing for the accident and send them the correct letter. This shouldn't affect you because you don't know what the letter says

 

[osujic1]

Yeah i believe so. The letter writer would probably have to send an email to the schools apologizing for the accident and send them the correct letter. This shouldn't affect you because you don't know what the letter says

Okay, that makes me feel a little better. Thanks for your advice, I really appreciate it.

 

[osujic1]

Update: I got rejected from Tulane, which sucks. I'm not sure how much of my the decision if any had to do with the LOR, they might have found other faults with my application. I still have yet to hear back from Georgetown or Tufts (I forgot to mention I also applied there earlier using different recommenders). The Rutgers program is tough as I expect would be the case with anywhere but I think Ill defiantly maintain the GPA requirement to matriculate into the program in the fall. While having a back up would really be nice and would definitely take some of the pressure off, I suppose at this point Im not as worried regardless of the remaining admission decisions. Thanks for all of the advice you guys. I guess Ill post what happens come Aug/Sep.