Need advice choosing 3rd recommender

[sabrinamichelle]

I have two professors that I am sure will be happy to write me letters. I am having trouble deciding who to choose for my third.

1) My school and department was very small. There were only three anthropology professors. Two are the ones I already asked, one has recently resigned from his contract at my university and is pursuing other interests. So I am wondering if I should ask him. He was increasingly unstable toward the end of my studies, and I wonder if he wants anything to do with academia right now. That seems like a huge risk to me as he is jaded and might not write something helpful, even though we were very close and I know he believes in me.

2) I took a field research course through a better known school (Wake Forest). For 3 weeks in Honduras. But this was two years ago and the professor is Emeritus. So he does not know me very well. He offered to write me recommendations, but I am not sure how reliable he would seem to an adcomm.

3) I took one undergrad course from a phd candidate (she now is a phd) and I still keep in touch with her. She now has a teaching position at another university. But again, it was only one class.

4) I have a potential great recommendation from a professor who is not in my major. He knows me well character wise and academically but not in terms of anthropology.

Which of these four options do you all think is the most promising???

[ktel]

1) I'm not sure what kind of relationship you have with him, but perhaps you should ask him whether he thinks he can write you a strong reference letter. Even if he's jaded, I doubt he would want to jeopardize your chances of getting into grad school.

2) If you don't think he knows you well, I would avoid him

3) and 4) both seem like decent options, or 1) if you think he could actually write a good letter. It's hard to tell just from the info here who would write the best letter.