Letters of Rec?

[combustiblecake]

Hi guys!

 

I have many potential letter writers. I'm an out of field major and I need advice on which would be the best letters to apply with.

 

1. Psychology neurolinguistics professor - she is currently my advisor for my UG thesis. She has known me throughout all my undergraduate career since I have worked in her lab for four years. She knows me well on my research side and my knowledge in neurolinguistics.

 

2. Portuguese professor - I did really awesome in his classes and he can speak of my academic/language skills. He told me he'd write the best letter ever because he considers me an excellent student. However, I'm not sure how relevant his letter would be to our field.

 

3. SLP I observed - she is a bilingual SLP and I've observed her for a little over one semester. It's probably the closest I've got in the field and I've observed her sessions in both English and Spanish. I've been very active during observation hours, so hopefully she would write a strong letter.

 

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Possible letter writers:

 

1. Linguistics professor - I've taken her course this semester (Child/Adult lang acqui) and she has been very supportive in helping me look out for my research interests. I've only known her for a semester though, I'm not sure how strong of a letter she would be.

 

2. French professor - I took three classes with her and she's always praised me as a student. However, it's been about a year or two since I last spoke with her and I'm not sure how relevant her letter is.

 

 

What do you guys think?

[eragon]

Which course are u applying to?

[badgal92]

Hi! Absolutely use the neuroscience/linguistics professor because those fields are quite relevant and you did a lot of supervised research and she knows you well. If the school asks for three, definitely use the first three you listed. If the school asks for two, I would still send them the three because they will usually welcome the third. You are fortunate to have a lot of options for recommendations. If you must send two, I am tempted to suggest the slp you observed because you don't have any slp recs. however I feel like a professor who knows you very well and knows the profession can write an effective letter. I myself have a mediocre rec from an slp, a stronger rec from the head of the education department and a rec from a professor that taught a research course.

[jpiccolo]

You can also email potential programs and see what they say. I did that with a couple to see if they preferred 3 PHD professors or would accept an SLP too. I had some say they really wanted 3 professors because they focus on the academics. So send off a few emails and I'm sure they'll help out.