<p>The letter is dated July 27, 1996. So why now???</p>
<p>Also in any institution, there is a chemistry (pun unintended) between a professor and doctoral/post doc student even more than with an undergraduate or even a masters student. I know of horror stories in almost every institution where Post-Docs feel they are slave labor and do not get along with their mentor. Obviously, we do not know what exactly happened but QuantMech is right, this is not something to worry about at this time for undergraduate admissions.</p>