#1 s
发表于 ： 2024年 10月 2日 10:55
Jeff Erickson
CS Professor, UIUC
My father is my university professor. Is that a good idea for me to ask him to write me a letter of recommendation for my master's degree, or would that not work in my favour?
[A2A]
No. No, no, no. Absolutely not. Do not, under any circumstances, ask your father to write you a recommendation letter for graduate school.
If your father wrote the letter and revealed your relationship, the letter would be thrown out immediately, because of the obvious and unavoidable conflict of interest. Graduate applications typically require a certain number of recommendation letters; tossing your dad’s letter might put you below that threshold, which means you effectively never applied at all. That’s the best case scenario. More likely, the admissions committee would still review your application, but would write you off as either unethical, deeply uninformed, or simply not accomplished enough to get three letters without conflicts.
If your father wrote the letter without revealing your relationship, and the relationship was later discovered, there’s a good chance that your admission would be revoked for fraud. Both your father and their department chair/dean would likely get an angry phone call from the department chair of the master’s program. Other recommendation letters from your father, and other applications from his/your university, would all be called into question.
If your father has any sense, he’d answer your request with “What?! What are you thinking? Of course not!” Better not to put in him in that uncomfortable position in the first place.
2.1M views
View 2,187 upvotes
CS Professor, UIUC
My father is my university professor. Is that a good idea for me to ask him to write me a letter of recommendation for my master's degree, or would that not work in my favour?
[A2A]
No. No, no, no. Absolutely not. Do not, under any circumstances, ask your father to write you a recommendation letter for graduate school.
If your father wrote the letter and revealed your relationship, the letter would be thrown out immediately, because of the obvious and unavoidable conflict of interest. Graduate applications typically require a certain number of recommendation letters; tossing your dad’s letter might put you below that threshold, which means you effectively never applied at all. That’s the best case scenario. More likely, the admissions committee would still review your application, but would write you off as either unethical, deeply uninformed, or simply not accomplished enough to get three letters without conflicts.
If your father wrote the letter without revealing your relationship, and the relationship was later discovered, there’s a good chance that your admission would be revoked for fraud. Both your father and their department chair/dean would likely get an angry phone call from the department chair of the master’s program. Other recommendation letters from your father, and other applications from his/your university, would all be called into question.
If your father has any sense, he’d answer your request with “What?! What are you thinking? Of course not!” Better not to put in him in that uncomfortable position in the first place.
2.1M views
View 2,187 upvotes