Reference letter

[Duneranger]

Generalizing, yet again. Still. This information is of no utility whatsoever, both of you. In my first post I did (so did a former UMPI student) explain to you that interactions with other students, weekly discussions, or chatting with instructors are not a thing in UMPI's YourPace programs. Yet here we are, talking about volunteer hours or extra curricular. No. These, still, are not a thing in UMPI's YourPace. Both of you mention experience - great! Let us indeed talk of experience, UMPI experience. Should you need a reminder, the question posed in this thread concerns the possibility of requesting a letter of recommendation as an UMPI student (or graduate). The things you are mentioning here may (or may not; I have no opinion on that) be completely correct for another school where you can (and perhaps must) engage in the mentioned extra activities. But this is not the UMPI YourPace reality. What if a prospective UMPI student is reading these generalizations which have nothing to do with this school? Or a more naïve current student? You are telling people that they should better do things that are actually impossible to do as UMPI students.

In my first post I already shared my opinion on the letter of recommendation. What I am going to reiterate is that in your UMPI YourPace class, the instructor already knows what CBE is (naturally, being a CBE instructor). Just because for whatever reason you have decided to be a CBE student does not mean that you have no right to request a letter of recommendation. As we already saw an example in this thread, requesting and receiving one is a possibility, in fact. Even as CBE students, I believe many of us put serious effort regarding our studies. Do not let anyone, whether they do it willingly or not, make you feel that your CBE experience is meaningless. As for some of us this kind of education is the only way.

You are being oddly defensive about this and taking things personally for some strange reason. You are inferring, projecting and stating multiple things that I did NOT say. I had to reread the posts because your post honestly baffled me and is sort of bizarre. None of my comments are a knock on CBE or UMPI (Why else would I be here? Also this isn't my first rodeo with online schooling). I am just commenting LORs are fortunately or unfortunately are staples in academia. For those wanting to pursue certain avenues of employment/further education, those LORs are going to need to talk about content beyond a few essays, powerpoints, discussion posts or papers. This isn't up for debate, it's reality (regardless of how yourpace is set up).

My original comment, which I have no idea at this point if you are even referring to, was just mentioning that some profs might ask or expect a draft of a LOR. That's it. It's not uncommon or rare to have that happen at ANY university. This could potentially make up for the lack of personal interaction and give the profs something to work off of versus generic comments about a handful of papers or PowerPoint.

Chill, it's not that serious.