<p>Can anybody with real experience in this matter tell me who letters of recommendation are supposed to be from? I'll be applying to physics grad schools next year and I'm unclear who these letters are supposed to be from. I've done undergraduate research in a smallish research group at my university. There is one professor and one post-doc. Should I ask the professors who taught classes I took? What if I barely know them? I only know one physics professor at all, that's the one I did research under, the others were all teachers to me--I rarely consulted with them during office hours or whatever so I never built a relationship. I didn't know I'd need THREE letters of recommendation from physics professors.</p>
<p>Is it okay if some of them are not physics professors? What about the people in charge of the undergraduate research office where I have done some volunteer speaking to groups of undergrads about ug research? What about math professors? What about writing teachers? My engineering writing teacher said she'd be willing to write a letter of rec for me. Will a grad admissions committee consider this worthwhile?</p>
<p>Your letters of rec should be from senior faculty in a field related to your grad school area. For physics grad school, this means physics professors, and maybe a math professor if you intend on doing theory. But even so, at least half of your recs should be physics professors.</p>
<p>Postdocs are not good rec writers, regardless of how well they know you. If the admissions committee sees a name they recognize, then they’re much more likely to listen to what the letter has to say. You want senior faculty in the field to write letters. </p>
<p>Writing teachers / office people would have absolutely no weight. </p>
<p>You still have this summer and can easily get a good rec from that. Combine this with the physics professor you did research with and a math professor, and that’s not too shabby. Another good way to get recs is to take the PhD topics courses, where there’s much more interaction with the professor, which you could do in the fall. Incidentally it’ll also impress graduate admissions committees.</p>
<p>I went through the same thing on my days. If you did good on your undergrad research get a letter from the professor in charge of that research, he will vouch on your research skills. Then, try to find the highest ranking profesor in your Physics department that you took a class or multiple classes better. If you had good grades with him he will remember you, get a letter from him too.</p>