Getting a professor to go over your academic transcript with you

[Simfish]

Does anyone else do this when applying to grad schools? And does anyone restrain themselves from doing this?

There's always the risk that the person writing your LOR might think less of you if they see your transcript, and that could decrease their opinion of you (an opinion that could be reflected in that LOR) => of course, you could have strengths on your transcript, but each professor is different, and some professors will weigh "negative" things as more strongly negative than others - they might also weigh "positive" things less strongly positive than others. On the other hand, the people reading your app will read both your LORs and your transcript, and they might note things that might seem to be discrepancies at first.

For those of us who might have a particularly strong (albeit not necessarily fatal) weakness in one area, this might be a significant concern. I'm definitely one of the stronger students in my department, but I have some really horrible grades in my first 2 years.

 

[jtbell]

If your professors are like me, they're going to look over your transcript anyway, before writing a recommendation. Professors here can call up any student's current transcript via their online access to the course registration system.

 

[Simfish]

Oh, do they always look at your transcript before writing a recommendation? Why does that information help? (if it's information that the adcom is going to get anyways?)

 

[Pengwuino]

I'm surprised a recommender would even look at your transcript. Aren't they suppose to write their recommendation based off their personal experience with you?