Letter of Recommendation Dilemma

Graduate School
1

<p>My degree program is done online and in 8 week quarters so while I am a good student, the extent to which a professor can get to know you in such a short time online feels a bit limited. I am applying for Master's programs this year (mostly professionally-oriented). I should have one good recommendation from a professor I am working with this summer, but the other 2 are up in the air. I know that schools prefer academic letters, but I feel as if I would get a much stronger letter from my former boss who I worked under for several years, albeit in an unrelated field. So my question is, should I:</p>

<p>A) Go with two online professors for my remaining 2 letters
B) Provide one letter from an online professor and one from my former boss
C) Send 4 letters</p>

<p>Any advice is helpful. If it makes any difference, my field is Computer Science/Human-Computer Interaction.</p>

2

<p>Hmmm, that’s tricky. If your online professors can’t say anything that’s not already reflected in your grades (“all of his written work was satisfactory and submitted on time” i.e. you received an A), a character reference from a former boss would probably be better than two vacuous academic letters. If your prior work was actually in computer science, a letter from your employer would be just as good as a letter from a professor; but I assume it was not since you called your work experience unrelated. </p>

<p>If you have a chance to interact with more than one faculty member this summer, you might also consider getting more than one letter from your summer project.</p>

3

<p>Send four letters.</p>