<p>One of my recommenders submitted their letter to a few of the schools I’m applying to. Afterwards, they let me look over the letter and I found a typo. The letter is a glowing letter about me as a student and a person. It does mention some things that don’t seem to be necessarily related to the program I’m applying to, but speaks highly of me nonetheless. </p>
<p>I’m wondering, with the typo and some lack of focus, is this going to hurt me? I figure it isn’t going to help much, but it won’t kill my chances right?</p>
<p>No, don’t worry about it. Colleges know teachers probably fill out evaluations for lots of students, so they can’t expect teachers to put in the same amount of effort as a student puts towards his/her application.</p>
<p>The typo does not reflect badly on you. And what you may see as a lack of focus may actually be an attempt to portray you as the type of person who will succeed in graduate school. Most likely, you are still too inexperienced to understand why the prof wrote what he did. </p>
<p>The worst LORs are those that say exactly nothing. (You won’t get a disapproving letter because any prof who feels that way will decline your request.)</p>
<p>focus is provided by your application not by your LOR writers. Typos are common in LORs-faculty are writing large number of recommendations, while performing demanding “day jobs”. Admission committees are faculty and are quite aware of this from their own experience. </p>
<p>If I were you, I would be very happy to receive a glowing LOR. Good luck with your applications!</p>
<p>I should say, since I have overreacted it seems, that I am very grateful for this Professor’s work. I am quite thankful that he/she (privacy) wrote such a glowing letter. I’ve known this professor for a while and this professor is a great person. - Just wanted to make that clear.</p>
<p>If a professor doesn’t think he or she can write a strong letter supporting your application, he or she will usually decline your request and advise you to find someone else. If you insist, though, then the professor has no choice but to relay his or her true feelings in the letter, be they neutral or disapproving.</p>
<p>It is highly unlikely a professor will feign enthusiasm when you request a letter and hide an intent to speak poorly of you, though.</p>
<p>I personally think that if a professor thinks they would end up writing you a negative LOR they should decline to write one because a negative LOR will pretty much guarantee a rejection from any school and they should be courteous enough to be honest and not allow you to spend money on an application they know will be denied.</p>
<p>professors are unlikely to write negative LORs when asked directly by a student. However, if the prof does not know you well or you really did not excel around this prof, the letter will be generic and neutral. After all the best, LORs have specific stories about an individual that demonstrates the LOR writer actually does know the student and really can validate with specific examples the students strengths. </p>
<p>If there are no examples to relate, then its not negative, but it says the LOR writer doesn’t know the student well enough to detail strengths and provide a realistic assessment of potential</p>
<p>The idea of a “disapproving” letter had me thinking that some prof out there was smiling to his students’ faces, then ripping their abilities in the letter.</p>