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From: swsh@carom.uchicago.edu (Janet M. Swisher)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Graduate School Admissions questions?????????
Message-ID: <8355@tank.uchicago.edu>
Date: 9 Apr 90 18:15:36 GMT
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About recommendation letters:

An acquaintance of mine who has been Director of Graduate Admissions of the 
CS dept. of a mid-sized midwestern university once told me that he considered
glowing recommendations from professors he had never heard of to be better
than average recommendations from big shots in the field.  If you are the best
student that Joe Faculty has ever had, it says a lot more about you than if
you did OK in Mr. Famous' class of 300 students. Of course, if you are the best
student Mr. Famous ever had, that's best of all.

Keep in mind though, that this is one person's experience, and other admissions
people may be more easily impressed by flash.

(Please excuse sexist references; most CS faculty, especially big-shots, are
currently men.)


Janet Swisher