Beanplating reccomendations ?
June 3, 2010 9:35 AM Subscribe
Misunderstanding-Filter : I have to provide the grad program I apply to, a "motivated advice" from a tutor who supervised my internship in the field i am applying in. Only thing is, due to a few misunderstandings, things ended badly, that was 2 years ago. Sorry for moderate length.
Upon entering the first part of a grad school program, I got accepted as an intern in neuropsychology, 2,5 years ago. Family circumstances helping, I got depressed and overwhelmed by constant panic shortly after it started. Despite starting therapy and meds, I didnt see a way out, so I just tried my best to do what was asked of me. We were lots of interns, as in..8 at a time (so many that our common tutor didn't really keep track of how we were experiencing and learning all the tasks we were given to do).
Once I had finished the mandatory hours, at the end of the schoolyear, a few misunderstandings came up to my boss/tutor, from other people in the service we were working in, and after yelling at me badly, she asked that I stopped coming. I was a mess (mostly due to stress) and cried when she told me (embarrasing-weird, you name it).
Since then, I have done another internship, in a somehow related field (clinical psy); and eventually found a balance in life.
I have the opportunity to apply to a new program, in another university, in order to finish my master's degree, as in my country anther selection takes place right before the last year of the master. I wish to apply to a neat program that is related to neuropsychology, as well as language.
And the university that holds this program asks for a kind of recommendation letter from a previous tutor. I have a feeling that things can only go bad. Is it even worth asking her to write something about me ? I have a feeling it could be a disaster, whatever she wrote.
On the other hand, upon "firing" me, my tutor told me that there were so many interns that it regularly happened for them to make mistakes, and that it had been a tough year with too many people in the service.
----> I am torn, as I really wish to get into the program, at least to try...
So I guess I should try and contact her, but would you have any advice as to how to approach this ?
throwaway email : studentrecovery@hotmail.fr
Upon entering the first part of a grad school program, I got accepted as an intern in neuropsychology, 2,5 years ago. Family circumstances helping, I got depressed and overwhelmed by constant panic shortly after it started. Despite starting therapy and meds, I didnt see a way out, so I just tried my best to do what was asked of me. We were lots of interns, as in..8 at a time (so many that our common tutor didn't really keep track of how we were experiencing and learning all the tasks we were given to do).
Once I had finished the mandatory hours, at the end of the schoolyear, a few misunderstandings came up to my boss/tutor, from other people in the service we were working in, and after yelling at me badly, she asked that I stopped coming. I was a mess (mostly due to stress) and cried when she told me (embarrasing-weird, you name it).
Since then, I have done another internship, in a somehow related field (clinical psy); and eventually found a balance in life.
I have the opportunity to apply to a new program, in another university, in order to finish my master's degree, as in my country anther selection takes place right before the last year of the master. I wish to apply to a neat program that is related to neuropsychology, as well as language.
And the university that holds this program asks for a kind of recommendation letter from a previous tutor. I have a feeling that things can only go bad. Is it even worth asking her to write something about me ? I have a feeling it could be a disaster, whatever she wrote.
On the other hand, upon "firing" me, my tutor told me that there were so many interns that it regularly happened for them to make mistakes, and that it had been a tough year with too many people in the service.
----> I am torn, as I really wish to get into the program, at least to try...
So I guess I should try and contact her, but would you have any advice as to how to approach this ?
throwaway email : studentrecovery@hotmail.fr
DO NOT ask this person for a letter. There are really only two kinds of recommendation letters, especially in academics: the kind that makes it sound like you walk on water, and the kind that doesn't. The second kind is the kiss of death. Even if she was reasonably supportive when she fired you, she really can't honestly recommend you. It's not really fair to put her in that position, and it's likely to really, really backfire on you. As aimedwanderer said, the best you can hope for is a carefully worded, bland non-recommendation, which is almost as bad as a total takedown. I would ask people from your clinical psych program, your university, whatever. But she needs to be avoided.
Good luck!
posted by LittleMissCranky at 11:22 AM on June 3, 2010
Good luck!
posted by LittleMissCranky at 11:22 AM on June 3, 2010
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Can you get the recommendation from your clinical psych internship instead? I'm not an admissions office, but I think a good recommendation from someone who can say "anon was a great worker, made great contributions to our psych project, and I'm sure anon will succeed in any field (s)he chooses to pursue" would be a much better support than even your best case from the other internship.
Even if the clinical psych tutor isn't the one you want a letter form (or if you need 2, etc) I'd be asking any professor I'd had any sort of out-of-classroom conversation with before I'd go to a former boss with whom things went badly.
posted by aimedwander at 10:01 AM on June 3, 2010