<p>•Someone who knows you well
•Someone with the title of "Professor"
•Someone who is a professor at the school granting your baccalaureate degree
•Someone who has earned the degree which you are seeking in your graduate work
•Someone with an advanced degree who has supervised you in a job or internship aligned with the graduate program you are pursuing (e.g., Public Health, Social Work, Business Administration, etc.)
•Someone who has academically evaluated you in an upper-division class
•Note: Letters from family friends, political figures, and the like are discouraged and, in fact, may be detrimental. </p>
<p>What do y'all think is most important? Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I have a specific case in mind: is it better to get a GOOD letter from a professor that is more well known in the field, or a letter from a professor that isn't known in the field (only graduated with PhD in 2008-2009) but who can really vouch for me and write a GREAT (i.e. better than good) letter?</p>
<p>Right. From what I’ve been told a letter stating that ‘so-and-so did well in my class, is a bright student with a promising future. I recommend so-and-so for blah blah’ is a letter which isn’t particularly helpful no matter whom it is from.</p>
<p>idk…even the “outstanding” version seems a bit cheesy. </p>
<p>My prof said he gets a letter like that from the same professor every year. He trashes it immediately and claims it’s so drawn out, it’s obviously fake. Fails to get the point across and is a garbage letter. So be careful. He also claims he has a killer sentence in his letter that gets them all the time. Of course he wouldn’t tell me what that was. :rolleyes: So, I trust he knows what a good letter looks like. </p>
<p>That said, you’ve gotta talk to your professors on an individual basis, they’ll be able to give you an idea if the letter will be good or not. Depending on where you’re applying to, 1 mediocre letter probably won’t hurt. But you’ve definitely gotta have one strong letter, but not necessarily a long one.</p>
<p>I feel like the “cheese” factor stems from the fact that negative things are not to be said in these letters unless someone really went out of their way to ask for it (I also think the example sounds generic because it might not be about a real student). No one is perfect, but the standards of these letters seem to be offset from reality a bit in their nature. I don’t know, that’s how I see it. Obviously if someone sends every letter proclaiming each student to be the best thing that has ever happened to science, they won’t be taken seriously.</p>
<p>Who knows what professors write. The only real indicator I can see is how previous students did after getting letters from those faculty members. One of my co-workers from a previous lab recently started at Stanford, and the person I “replaced” in my current lab is attending Yale. Though these two individuals had stronger applications in other aspects, it at least indicates to me that the letters should be helpful if earned properly (at least not detrimental).</p>
<p>Thank you for the helpful responses. I was worried no one was going to reply! </p>
<p>Virions: I had a look at the pdf…I don’t think a mediocre letter is coming my way, but I’m not certain how good it will be. </p>
<p>I guess the idea is to provide my professors with as much information as possible about me, so that they can use rich and detailed examples, yes? I already had a sense that this would have to be the case but it is good confirmation nonetheless.</p>
<p>If any of you have any more advice or tips, that would be great!</p>
<p>For a purely academic and not professional PhD, the best letter comes from someone with a PhD in your field who has both taught you in classes AND supervised you in research within your field. Then they can comment on both your academic merit and your promise as a scholar.</p>
<p>The second-best kind of letter comes from someone with a PhD in your field who has simply supervised you in research, since research is paramount in PhD applications. The third-best comes from a professor with a PhD in your field who has taught in you several classes, followed by someone who has taught you in one class. In both cases, you should’ve performed very well in the courses. Secondary letters can certainly come from professors in related fields; for example, a philosophy student who is interested in philosophy as it is explored in literature of the 18th century can get a recommendation from the English professor who taught her 18th century American literature course, or something like that.</p>
<p>It’s not ideal to get a recommendation from someone without a PhD because they haven’t been through the process, so they can’t really speak to whether or not you are well suited for it yourself. It’s also not ideal to get a recommendation from someone in a field completely unrelated to what you plan for grad school. A biology professor can’t comment on whether you can complete the requirements, and excel, in a PhD program for philosophers.</p>
<p>Supervisors with PhDs who supervise you in jobs that are related to your career can be helpful, but you have to be careful. These are mainly aimed at professional students who plan to attend professional programs. For example, if you are a teacher trying to get a PhD in educational leadership, a letter written by a principal who supervised you and has a PhD in that field is great. If you are a philosopher, there aren’t very many related jobs that would be suitable to get a recommender from unless you did a job in which you were doing scholarship in philosophy, or perhaps teaching one of the languages you need for a philosophy degree or assistant teaching a philosophy class.</p>
<p>i graduated in may 09 and had not been in touch with my professors since then until a few weeks back when i wrote to a couple. seems like the gap of two years was a little too long for them to remember the exact details of where i stood, i have A’s in all the classes taught by them but am still worried that they might not be able to portray me in the light that i want them to. i can get two excellent recommendations from places where i worked over the last two years but i guess a minimum of one recommendation is expected from an academic source.
what should i do, i am applying to a masters of science/engineering degree in mechanical engineering.</p>
<p>Kaflen - you could arrange to go meet with some of your professors, have a chat with them about what you’ve been up to since leaving school, what your plans are for graduate school, etc. Seeing you will probably help them to remember a bit better than just recognizing your name. </p>
<p>Or, depending on when you plan to apply, you could take up some courses (if you feel that your profs will definitely not remember much about you to write a good letter) and get to know those new professors well, be involved in their projects, etc., even if it’s at a local community college or state school with a relatively low cost of attendance. Paying per credit as a non-matriculated student is much more cost effective, especially if you’re only taking one or two courses related to your major to meet some new people. </p>
<p>Your employment sources for letter writing will only be good if they can talk about your traits that directly affect your ability to do well in the masters program. If they are talking about traits that were great for your job but unrelated to your program, they will not help you at all.</p>
<p>Would a letter of recommendation from my supervisor at my job as a chemistry and math tutor, where I obtained national certification in tutoring, help with applying for chemistry grad programs? She does have a PhD and the title of director of the program. It would show that I have mastery of the material in my field well enough to teach it, right?</p>
<p>I will have a letter from my mentor as well, I’ve been doing research in her lab for a year now and I’m doing my honors thesis with her. I’m also taking her graduate level course and doing very well in it, and she’s told me she’s very pleased with my work in her lab and will do everything she can to help me get in where I want to go.</p>
<p>I’m not sure for my last letter. I have several professors I’m considering asking but I could use some advice. </p>
<p>Should I ask the professor I had for an honors archaeology class? In that class we spent most of the semester doing individual projects in his lab, and I ended up presenting my project at a competitive undergraduate research symposium at my school. Additionally, his undergrad was in chemistry and the project was essentially chemistry applied to archaeology.</p>
<p>Should I ask the advisor from the chemical engineering department? He advised me in my project for calculus 3 that was published in an undergraduate journal.</p>
<p>My concern would be that these projects were both two years ago so I’m not sure how well they would remember me at this point.</p>
<p>Or should I ask my biochemistry professor, since I took his class just this past summer and did very well in it. I went to his office hours and got a lot of advice from him about what to look for in graduate programs but I’m not sure how strong it is that I’ve only had one class with him. I’m considering taking his advanced biochemistry course in the spring but that hasn’t happened yet.</p>