I am so proud of this boy’s nice personality
I am reading applications from prospective PhD students for my research group. Most applicants are foreign. The professors who have written recommendation letters often comment on the student’s personality traits. (The title of this post is typical of this style, which I do not think you would generally find in a US student’s application.)
I am delighted by imagining these prospective students of mine, who in addition to being intelligent, independent researchers, are "always very kind and helpful" to their classmates and have a "cheerful outlook and honest disposition."
I bet many of those letters were written by the students themselves…
Comment by anon — November 30, 2007 @ 5:10 am
Well, then at least they think of themselves as kind and helpful people.
Comment by drshellie — November 30, 2007 @ 5:24 am
“cheerful outlook and honest disposition” reminds me of the advertisement written for Mary Poppins by the children: “If you want this choice position, have a cheery disposition… “
Comment by ScienceWoman — November 30, 2007 @ 3:43 pm
I do not think that “always very kind and helpful to their classmates” would be written in an American letter. But might “kind and helpful to their classmates” not mean something similar to “takes a leadership role in team efforts” or some such catch phrases? Basically, it might be a language problem of a referee, who wasn’t handed out the current memos on how to write letters.
Comment by Anonymous — November 30, 2007 @ 4:19 pm
I wrote my recommedation letters myself and guess what: I was acepted at Imperial College London. Not proud of that but my Greek Profs were unable to write formal English, so they asked me to do the fraud.
Comment by rodoula — April 16, 2008 @ 2:44 pm
*accepted
Comment by rodoula — April 16, 2008 @ 2:45 pm