Relevance of Non-Statistics Research and Recommendations

[discreature]

Hello all. I've got some questions about the relevance of non-stats research. I'm currently first-authoring a paper in my university's medical school, but the focus of the paper is implementing a causal inference algorithm on a specific dataset. I am aware that this is not the type of research that I will do in grad school, but I feel that my work is statistically involved. Also, the professor that I have worked with on this project is the one who knows me the best thus far. Because of this, I intend to ask him to write me a letter of recommendation once application season rolls around. I of course hope to balance this out with strong math grades/recommendations from stats faculty, but I am wondering how big of a deal this research will be once I actually apply. Will this be seen as significantly positive experience or relatively ignorable by Stats department? Will an LoR from an Epidemiology Professor be looked down upon?  

 

I ask this not only for curiosity's sake, but also I am taking this coming year off of school and plan to make my research my main priority. Alternatively, I could continue research but shift my focus to perhaps self-studying some math/stats/GRE. I'm trying to suss out how I should divide my time between various things that are preparing me for Ph.D life/applications.

[Stat Assistant Professor]

I think that it's a great idea to get a letter of recommendation from the person who supervised your first author paper. A first author paper is a clear sign of "research potential," even if it's not what you end up doing your dissertation research in. As long as your LOR writer can explain your research contribution in their recommendation letter and convey clearly that you performed statistical analysis, it should make a positive impression. 

I say go with the Epidemiology professor for a recommendation letter. Try to get at least one letter from a math professor who can highlight your mathematical abilities, your coursework in math, etc.