spiny22

Sending a letter is possibly the most professional way to communicate, and is less likely to ignored or lost than an email or phone call. I'd say it's a good choice.

The trouble with alumni is that while you may assume that everyone at the program loves them, this may not be the case. I wouldn't let this stop you from asking him for a letter if you thought he would write the best one, but if other professors will write you better letters, go with them. As long as they're all professors with decent publishing histories (or otherwise reasonably present in the field) go with who knows you the best and can speak most highly of you. If someone can speak very highly of you this outweighs all other factors.

I don't think Kaplan verbal questions themselves are harder, but I think they are scored unfairly. I scored fairly well (around 158) but that was still lower than I scored on other practice tests. I've heard Kaplan verbal is not very predictive, so I wouldn't be too worried about it, especially if your PowerPrep and Manhattan scores are good. So don't freak out.

Different programs evaluate the GRE differently. For some Q is the most important section; for some it doesn't matter that much. Who have you gotten advice from? I would look at advice from professors in your field, the people who make admissions decisions. If Q is relatively important to decisions, and you think you have a shot of improving your score, I would retake. If you're getting these conflicting opinions from professors in your field, I would go the safe route and retake. Better to put yourself under a little more stress and possibly improve your chances than not and risk an unfavorable outcome.

It depends on how important quantitative scores are to history programs. Your verbal is obviously fine. I would ask a professor how important Q is compared to V, and if they say it's at least as important, I would retake. Even bringing up your score a few points could make a difference.

I've heard both, that you should go for someone who knows you and can write a really good letter, and that the person's status is important. When I think about who knows me best and could write a really good letter, the obvious choice is a grad student I've worked closely with on research. However I've heard that letters from grad students are sometimes more or less ignored by admissions committees. I do think this person could write a really good letter though so I'm kind of pulled both ways.

That should have been obvious to me. My third choice doesn't make a lot of sense. So should I just go for who knows me best over the other factors? Sounds like that's maybe the most important thing.

I'm applying to developmental psych phd programs and I've run into what seems to be a common problem: no idea who to ask for my third LOR. The first two are fairly obvious. One is my senior thesis sponsor; she's very familiar with my research skills, very supportive, and extremely well known and respected in the field. The second is an adjunct professor I took an honors class with; he's become a sort of mentor, is very familiar with my writing, and I know he thinks quite highly of me. So then there's the third. While I've developed great relationships with the two mentioned profs, most of my other professors barely got to know me. Because I switched to psych relatively late (junior year) I had to catch up with a lot of lecture classes, so my opportunities to get close to profs have been slim. I have three main choices: 1) Former neuroscience prof who is also director of the senior thesis program. I got an A-, which is good for his class, but did no writing in the class. However, he will have the opportunity to become familiar with my writing because he must approve thesis drafts. The problem is I'm just getting started and don't know if I'll be able to submit my intro draft sooner that it's due (somewhat late in the semester). 2) Former social psych prof who got to know me by name. I got an A in his class and submitted papers, but the TA graded them. Of course I could show him the papers when I asked for the LOR. 3) Research methods prof who I did not get to know, but for whose class I wrote considerably more intensive papers. Again, the TA graded them. I know my third LOR will be considerably weaker than the first two, so I'd also appreciate any insight into how much the strength of the first two can counteract that weakness.