My professor wants to know if his recommendation is helpful Several weeks after I received the recommendation from Professor M, he sent an email to me and asked me about the result of my application to a graduate school.  He wants to know whether his recommendation is helpful and my application is accepted or not.

Although I have submitted my application and supporting documents to the graduate admissions, the deadline for the program I have applied for is on the 18th April.

The only message I received from the graduate school was that they had received my application. I have no idea whether my application is successful or not, but the email from professor M made me nervous.

I can see that there are a lot of professors here. I guessed that some of you had written recommendation letters for your students. I would love to know this:


  What were your reactions when you heard of your students telling you that their applications failed or your recommendation letters useless?


I feel scared when thinking of this situation.
You should not be nervous about the enquiry, he just wants to know the outcome. Many academics lose track of time and/or have unrealistic expectations about how fast things move. I would respond that you haven't heard anything yet, but will let him know, regardless of the outcome, when you hear.

If you get in, he will fell happy for you and if you don't get in he will feel a little sad for you. Even if you are unsuccessful, I would not tell a letter writer that the letter was "useless". The only case I might say something like that, and I would be much more positive about it, is if you chose not to use that individual as a reference. Something like: for that position, I was limited on the number of reference I could submit and I felt my other references were a better fit for the position.