Reference dilemma

Julie22

Hi everyone,
I’m a little concerned about an issue I have with a former lecturer, and I hope someone will be able to give me some advice! He was the director of my M.A. programme; I have the greatest of respect for him, really enjoyed the course and I learned a great deal. Soon after I submitted my thesis I asked him for a reference so I could move to a course at a different university. He seemed hesitant, but agreed. I had already met with the head of the course in the other university, and been provisionally accepted. The provision being that he indicated in his reference what my final grade would be, as it would not be officially released in time for me to meet the acceptance deadline. Weeks went by, I heard nothing, and eventually I spoke with the dept. secretary who informed me that I had not been offered a place, and it was by that stage too late in the term to begin. When my grade was eventually released, I was awarded a 2.1, which should have been enough to meet the entry requirements, so I assume that this wasn’t expressed in the reference.
Now a lot of the fault here lies with me, I was very immature, and involved in a disastrous relationship which I wasted a lot of time on, and my work wasn’t what it could have been. I also disappeared off to work on my own, I was really stressed and felt that what I was doing wasn’t good enough to submit (the comments he gave in his corrections still give me nightmares!).
That was a couple of years ago, and since then I have worked in a couple of different areas, and trained as a teacher (and toughened up a great deal!). I never stopped wanting to do a PhD, and the itch to get back into research stayed with me. So I bit the bullet, got in touch with a great supervisor, who’s really happy with my proposal, and everything is ready to go. Except, of course, I need to get a reference from my M.A. supervisor. I emailed a few days ago, no reply. I know this person is extremely busy, but I’m just concerned because of what happened the last time. I’m not really sure where to go from here; I was kind of considering maybe asking my P.G.D.E. tutor for a reference? But I don’t know how appropriate that would be. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

El Siglo

Julie22 wrote: »

Hi everyone,
I’m a little concerned about an issue I have with a former lecturer, and I hope someone will be able to give me some advice! He was the director of my M.A. programme; I have the greatest of respect for him, really enjoyed the course and I learned a great deal. Soon after I submitted my thesis I asked him for a reference so I could move to a course at a different university. He seemed hesitant, but agreed. I had already met with the head of the course in the other university, and been provisionally accepted. The provision being that he indicated in his reference what my final grade would be, as it would not be officially released in time for me to meet the acceptance deadline. Weeks went by, I heard nothing, and eventually I spoke with the dept. secretary who informed me that I had not been offered a place, and it was by that stage too late in the term to begin. When my grade was eventually released, I was awarded a 2.1, which should have been enough to meet the entry requirements, so I assume that this wasn’t expressed in the reference.
Now a lot of the fault here lies with me, I was very immature, and involved in a disastrous relationship which I wasted a lot of time on, and my work wasn’t what it could have been. I also disappeared off to work on my own, I was really stressed and felt that what I was doing wasn’t good enough to submit (the comments he gave in his corrections still give me nightmares!).
That was a couple of years ago, and since then I have worked in a couple of different areas, and trained as a teacher (and toughened up a great deal!). I never stopped wanting to do a PhD, and the itch to get back into research stayed with me. So I bit the bullet, got in touch with a great supervisor, who’s really happy with my proposal, and everything is ready to go. Except, of course, I need to get a reference from my M.A. supervisor. I emailed a few days ago, no reply. I know this person is extremely busy, but I’m just concerned because of what happened the last time. I’m not really sure where to go from here; I was kind of considering maybe asking my P.G.D.E. tutor for a reference? But I don’t know how appropriate that would be. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

For most lecturers it's merely a formality. I've asked loads of lecturers that I knew from going to the lectures and they were sound out about it (One of them asked me for a cv to see what I was doing, skills etc... because I was going into a scientific field and he was an arts person), but generally if you know them it's a big help. That first supervisor from the MA sounded like a dick, but the less said on that the better. I would contact the PGDE tutor and maybe another lecturer from the MA, anyone who's still working and might remember you.

IvyTheTerrible

I would call the MA supervisor up on the phone. These people get loads and loads of emails and it could be easy for yours to fall through the cracks.

convert

If you're worried about the reference from your MA supervisor, then I'd advise contacting another lecturer on that course and asking them for a reference.

It is possible that when he last gave you a reference he didn't think you'd achieve a 2.1 grade, and wrote this in the reference. However, since you've now received your 2.1 then there shouldn't be the same issue.

However, there's no reason why you shouldn't ask your PDGE tutor for a reference as they were your most recent tutor or supervisor.

Julie22

hi all, thanks for the advice. All sorted now, got in touch with a different lecturer in the end, who couldn't have been nicer or more helpful