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Dr SG once wrote that there was a buzz in the 1990s that all a student of IIT KGP had to do, if he wanted to get into a good institution, was to impress gps by hook or crook and extract (like a tooth) a good reco.
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A young man, Dr SG (now at a prestigious institution in France), and I never met. But we must have exchanged a hundred mails since we are blog-friends.
And Dr SG asked me if there is any truth in it.
And this is the reply I gave him:
"...About
my Recos the less said the better. It is all
there in the 'Reco Mela' Series of 5 posts. The one thing common to me
and my Recos is that I am never negative. Always B+ve. There was never
any 'however', 'but', 'to the best of my knowledge' and such bitchy
things. Either give a Reco or don't. But if I agree to give one, the sky
is the limit...I lose nothing and if someone benefits, why not? Generally IIT KGPians used to get into good US Univs all by
themselves...Recos were incidental...like Sessionals...see if they are
all there but don't take the trouble of reading them..."
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Here is a Reco Story that I don't remember telling earlier...however, as Feynman said, 'redundant truth never hurts'.
During the late 1980s a famous institute in Bangalore that didn't have any undergraduate program started a Summer School for about 8 weeks at B'lore, meant for good UG students. Ads and posters were sent to the best institutes asking them to be put up on their Notice Boards and encourage good students to apply. B'lore was a great place in summer...accommodation was free...and there was good stipend.
I happened to be the Professor-in-Charge of Training and Placement in the Phy Dept at IIT KGP then and pasted a copy of the ad on my office door.
A student from our Dept, K, and another student, M, from the Ch E Dept approached me for Recos. I knew both of them well enough and gave them my standard recos. They got selected and did so well that the Prof-in-Charge of the Summer Program at B'lore, Prof R, was so much impressed with them that they could squeeze great recos from him for their higher studies in the US...K got into Princeton and M into Rochester.
And, I got a letter from Prof R of B'lore requesting me to send more students like K and M for his future Summer Schools. And I did recommend a couple the next year who also did well.
The next year, two students, A and S from our Dept, asked me for recos to the B'lore Summer School. I knew A very well (he went on to do a good M.Sc Project with me and went to the UK).
I happened to be a teacher of S in his 3rd year Lab. He was about the most silent student I ever saw at KGP. And he was the class topper. And he used to answer every viva question I put to him before falling glumly silent. I was naturally impressed and somewhat curious about him.
So when the two asked me for my recos I had absolutely no hesitation in giving them my standard recos ('boilerplate' in the lingo of my MIT friend Edwin).
Both of them got selected.
After the summer was over, there was a knock on the door of my Qrs one afternoon, and I found A and saw that he was somewhat crest-fallen.
I asked him what the matter was and he told me his story:
"Sir, forgive me...I made an awful mistake. My Summer School went fine and Prof R was happy with me. But S started bunking the lectures and demos gradually and finally didn't show up for his public Project Presentation when R called his name several times. This infuriated Prof R who lost his temper and shouted where S had disappeared, and who recommended him for his Summer School...
And I blurted out: 'Professor G. P. Sastry'
And Prof R's face fell and he said: 'Hmmm! Too bad!' "
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