<p>I have 2 good letters of recommendation from my industry supervisors who oversaw my research. However, I'm having trouble finding a 3rd letter writer. I asked a professor from a related class that I got an A in and visited office hours a few times. I hadn't talked to him in a couple years. He agreed to write me the letter, but outright said "it wouldn't be that personal because of our limited class interaction." I emailed him back and said I'd like to meet with him to catch him up to speed and tell him more about myself. He hasn't responded in 2 weeks, and because of this, I'm starting to reconsider if I should use him. I have other professors I can ask, but they're all kind of the same deal as this guy. So what's better...</p>
<p>A character letter from an unrelated job, or a so-so letter from a field-related professor?</p>
<p>Character letter is completely useless. Don’t bother with that. Professor letters are way more important (and if I interpreted the first line of your post correctly, you don’t have any prof. rec letters otherwise.) So I’d advise you to go meet him, make sure your letter gets somewhat more personalized, and so on.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice about the character letter. Yeah, I’m hoping my other 2 letters encompasses both my scientific abilities and character. </p>
<p>So I guess I’ve gotta keep waiting for his response then. Or move onto a different professor. I really just hope I can help them write more than one of those one-paragraph letters that adcoms see right through…</p>
<p>Even if they see right through it… The admissions committee will know that you have been out of school for a while. You can get by on two strong letters and a generically positive one. </p>
<p>I applied to graduate school with two strong letters and a third that I literally had to beg for, from a professor who I had barely talked to outside of class. (I was painfully shy for a good part of my college career…) I got into some of the tippy top programs in my discipline. Maybe I was just particularly lucky, but it did work out for me in the end.</p>