I recently applied to CS PhD programs and I’m worried my LORs are not strong enough. I didn’t establish any close relationships with my profs and so they probably don’t have that much to say about me besides the grades I got. Is this going to be a problem for me or severely affect my chances?
Hello! First of all congrats on applying! So I would say regarding LORs, it helps to have at least one very strong letter. If your application is extremely strong otherwise then then a lack of strong LORs shouldn’t hurt your case but it would if your professors were kind of neutral or even had mentioned negative things. I would say outstanding LORs are a really big plus that elevate your application and LORs with negative or even neutral comments may bring it down a bit. However, if they’re just kind of generic/somewhat positive then it shouldn’t sway the decision to give you an offer too much.
good luck!!
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Thanks! I’m not sure if they were neutral but they’re definitely not overly positive. Do you think if a prof really likes your profile he/she would not care too much about the LORs?