Hi! I reached out to a previous professor of mine for an academic reference, and she informed me that although happy to write one, she is no longer a professor. She was an assistant professor/temporary lecturer at the time and is now no longer in the teaching field. I'm worried that if I use her as a reference my application won't be considered for any schools that require an academic reference. Anyone have any experience in this area? Otherwise my backup plan is to reach out to other profs, but she's the only one I had an individual relationship with... any others I fear would give me a very generic, non-character reference which I also don't want to hurt my chances. What should I do?
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This isn't a problem at all! The purpose of an academic LoR is to understand what you bring to the classroom environment. If the professor has moved into another field (which is totally normal by the way! for example, there are lots of academics who take on government jobs for a period of time before coming back to the academy), that's alright. The key remains that they taught you in a college class.
Thank you so much!