Chosing letters of recommendation (personal)

Graduate School
1

<p>Applying to CS grad school (some MS, some PhD)</p>

<p>Choice of recommenders:</p>

<p>rec 1: Senior manager (well known software company). Letter should be very strong.</p>

<p>rec 2: Lecturer from an Industrial engineering class I took (not a prof.) I received an A in his programming related class, was the top student in his class. Would be a great rec letter. Cons; Not a professor, not an EECS class</p>

<p>rec 3: Associate prof. Mediocre rec letter, got B+ in his class</p>

<p>rec 4: Professor for a class directly related to my future research interest (networking), doesn't really know me. I received an A but I expect a dry mediocre rec letter, something like: "He took one of the tough classes and received an A"</p>

<p>rec 5: Coworker (senior engineer with 30 yrs of exp.) I expect it to be an awesome rec letter..</p>

<p>I know that at least one should be from faculty. What should I choose for my three recs?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>Definitely not 5. You should really get people with PhDs. If you had to choose between 1 and 2, as long you use 3 and 4, 1 would be fine, especially if he has a PhD.</p>

3

<p>Momwaitingfornew, your thoughts?</p>

<p>Thanks ticklemepink.</p>

4

<p>Keep in mind that this is just my opinion.</p>

<p>For professional MS: numbers 1, 4, and 5.</p>

<p>For PhD: that’s much tougher because you really need at least two solid letters from academia. As TMP says, definitely not #5. I guess I’d pick #4, #3, and #1, provided that #1 has a PhD.</p>

5

<p>Even though I am applying to some MS programs, my Statement of Purpose makes it clear I am interested in a PhD track so I will go with your suggestions for PhD (4/3/1). I just found out Rec 4 is an alumni of one of the uni’s I am applying to!</p>

<p>Edit: Thanks momwaitingfornew</p>

6

<p>Alright, I talked to the profs. Should get awesome recs from rec 3 and rec 4… So now I have two from academia directly related to my field. Should I go for an epic letter from a senior manager (cons: not a PhD) or from a researcher/lecturer back in college who taught in IOE (cons: not a PhD, not a EE/CS class)…</p>

<p>thanks</p>

7

<p>Since you have only two possibilities, both without PhDs, I would go for the one that can write about your recent work in the field: #1.</p>

8

<p>Thanks momwaitingfornew.</p>

9

<p><em>sigh</em> I got shunned by rec 4 (professor)… not sure what to do now, so clueless. Two from industry and one from a professor would work, but i’ve heard graduate schools ignore industry letters.</p>

10

<p>Ivictor, you don’t have much of a choice at this point, so you’ll just have to see what happens.</p>