Dear Former Professor, This will seem really out-of-the-blue, though I think it’s worth sharing. When I was a senior at college, you kindly encouraged me to apply to a specific prestigious Ph.D.
program (to possibly work with a colleague of yours) and offered to write a strong recommendation letter. Months later, we spoke, and you shared the insight (obtained through the backchannels) that my GRE scores were not competitive enough.
I knew my scores were not related to any lack of study, knowledge and hard work, so I didn’t bother to try for better scores.
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