<p>I'm a junior right now. By the time I graduate, I'll have worked 2 years in the same cancer bio lab, but I don't feel entirely comfortable asking the PI himself for a recommendation since we don't really interact on a personal basis all that often. Would it be better for me to ask the graduate student I work under instead? We obviously have an infinitely better relationship since we are working together all the time (while the PI is cooped up in his office). But does a letter signed by a PI carry more weight than one from a grad student or postdoc?</p>
<p>Nope. The PI needs to write the LOR. A grad student LOR is worthless, although your PI may ask for the student’s input.</p>
<p>You definitely need the PI to write the letter. I’m sure he knows what you are doing and your quality of your work from the input of grad students as apumic says.</p>
<p>Can a grad student be a PI? B/c I have the same problem, I’ve worked in a lab for about 2 years already under a grad student, not once have I seen his supervisor, though I am signed up for research under the supervisors name. The thing is, the experiments are pretty much all of the grad student’s ideas with some added input from the supervisor. Is it really not good to get a LOR from a grad student?</p>
<p>Have the PI co-sign the letter. </p>
<p>A letter signed by the grad student only is unacceptable.</p>