Schooling can be so tedious.
So many hoops to jump through.
toyin
On 25 February 2018 at 01:45, Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso <jumoyin@gmail.com> wrote:
Contrasting sides to the issue:
A colleague recently shared her grant application with me to read and advice but also inadvertently (I think) attached to the email the recommendation letter from her PhD supervisor. I read the letter and was thoroughly embarrassed. I was sad that day. Not only was it empty of the intimate knowledge of the candidate's research and academic strengths — and this was a brilliant candidate, her transcripts attest — it was also full of what I also thought at the time were meaningless, highfalutin sounding Nigerianisms and cliches, and thanks to Moses for using the same term. To compound the matter, it was riddled with grammatical errors. Having all my career gotten wonderfully superlative reference letters from my own PhD supervisor, I felt so bad for the candidate; I didn't know one's own advisor could be so clueless and unhelpful.
On the other hand, heads of departments are usually required to give recommendations to students applying to foreign universities. In Nigeria, that usually means a standard format letter with each requesting student's details inserted as needed. No head of department in Nigeria has the time to write an intimate letter of recommendation for all candidates requesting it, nor, more importantly, would they truthfully know all and each of their plenty students so well. Outstanding students might get unique letters, but the vast majority would get that standard format letter residing on the departmental secretary's computer, full of the standard cliches of hard work, honesty and blandness.
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