Two questions: who to get a third letter from, and whether to use a "central hub" for my letters

[APOCooter]

I have a couple questions about getting letters of recommendation. I plan on applying to five to seven masters degree programs in biostatistics.

First, I'm not sure who my third letter should come from. I'll be getting one from a professor that I had for two classes, and the second will come from my supervisor at an internship. I have two choices for my third.

The first choice is from one of my professors from community college. I had him for calc I, calc II, and differential equations and I'm confident that he'd give me a strong letter. The downside being that it's from a community college professor (which shouldn't matter, in my opinion, because it's not like differential calculus is any different at MIT than a community college, but sometimes it does). Additionally, my last class with him was Summer '11, so it's been a while. But again, I feel like he would write me a strong letter.

My other option would be a professor at my current 4 year school. Since I went to a community college before, I haven't had as much time to develop relationships with the faculty. I've only had one class with this professor (a second semester introductory statistics course). However, I do have him for another, more advanced, statistics class this semester. Would it be worth going to him and asking if there's anything I can do between now and November that would earn me a strong letter, and use him instead?

Finally, my current school offers a service where the alumni office acts as a central hub for reference letters. Basically, I can have all reference letters sent there and then they send out copies where I direct them. Reading this forum, I'm seeing people who are handing letter writers tables with various due dates and different instructions for submission (and sometimes even different instructions for writing each one!). This seems like quite the imposition, especially with applying to multiple schools. Is using this service worthwhile, or should I really be like, “Can you write me a letter? Oh, by the way, I need you to send it to these seven places.”

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[sareth]

Reading this forum, I'm seeing people who are handing letter writers tables with various due dates and different instructions for submission (and sometimes even different instructions for writing each one!). This seems like quite the imposition, especially with applying to multiple schools. Is using this service worthwhile, or should I really be like, “Can you write me a letter? Oh, by the way, I need you to send it to these seven places.”

I've definitely been guilty of handing profs a table (I applied to 9 Ph.D. programs, as well as a variety of scholarships throughout my undergrad career). For Ph.D. apps I asked profs I had worked with for 4-ish years (I was also a transfer from community college, but I ended up spending more than 2 years as a student and worked as staff after graduation), but they all expressed to me that they consider writing letters (not necessarily strong letters - those you need to earn) to be part of their job. That said, I made the process as easy as possible. For the few hard-copy letters that were required I offered to provide stamped envelopes (they all declined since the department supplies postage & letterhead, but it's always good to offer. One old-school prof had me hand-address the envelopes for her). I also supplied printed copies of all forms that needed to be included with hard-copy letters.

Of course I thanked my letter writers profusely (send thank-you notes!) and kept them up to date as offers came in. I actually sent them postcards recently just to stay in touch as I started at my new program, and I swear it wasn't just because I'm about to ask for letters for an NSF-GRFP app

You may find as you work your way through applications that some programs will only accept electronic letters and will automatically send out emails to your referees. That's where handing a prof a table with due dates becomes important (and where a central service offered by your institution may be of limited value). I didn't ask professors to customize letters, though I did note which programs had more of an interdisciplinary focus, and my undergrad research advisor tailored her letter to those.

As far as a letter from a community college prof... that's a tough one. I ended up *not* asking any of my CC profs, largely because it had been so long, and because my baccalaureate profs could do a better job of speaking to my research potential. You may be better off doing as you suggest and talking to your stats prof about what he would need to write you a strong letter, thus circumventing the prejudice against CC profs AND getting a letter which focuses on your facility with stats, closer to your proposed field of study than calculus.

Best of luck!

[amlobo]

I kind of second what the previous poster said... professors consider letter-writing part of their job. Plus, if it is someone who is happy to write a letter for you, they will be fine with writing as many as you want. The difference between 5 and 15 is only about 5-10 minutes per letter. I told my LOR writers up-front that I'm applying to 15 schools, and I will give them a table. No one seemed to think anything of it. All of my LORs are electronic, so it's something to pay attention to regarding whether the letter-writing service is of any use.

As far as the third letter, I would use whoever will give you the stronger letter. If the 4-year prof can give just as good of a letter as the CC can, go with the 4-year. Also consider what your other letters are going to communicate, and factor that into your decision, as well. If one prof can provide a perspective that the other LOR writers cannot, that might be a good reason to go with that prof.