Professors vs work references

[maturia]

I graduated with my BA earlier this year, and now I'm applying to several MPH programs here in Canada. Several programs only require 2 references, and for those, I'm asking 2 of my professors from undergrad. However, some programs ask for 3 references - I'm wondering if for these, I should ask 2 professors and one former manager, who supervised me at my 4-month summer job in 2011 (which was not in the field of public health, but he knows I am interested in this field), or if I should just ask a third professor, who doesn't know me very well but in whose class I did well and who may be more familiar with graduate school recommendations than someone who isn't in academia? Any opinions/advice would be sincerely appreciated! Thank you.

[maturia]

Just to add on - another option for me rather than asking the supervisor or prof who doesn't know me ell would be to ask a PhD Candidate who acted as my instructor for 2 courses related to my proposed field of study. My only concern with that would be whether it's acceptable to ask a PhD candidate to act as a reference?

[fuzzylogician]

If the academic options involve a "did well in class" letter, go with the professor rather than the graduate student. If the work letter could say more than DWIC then go with that. DWIC is not very useful as a letter and doesn't say anything about you that's not already in your transcript.

[maturia]

If the academic options involve a "did well in class" letter, go with the professor rather than the graduate student. If the work letter could say more than DWIC then go with that. DWIC is not very useful as a letter and doesn't say anything about you that's not already in your transcript.

Thanks for the response. The third professor would definitely just be a "did well in class" letter, and I didn't even write a paper for her class. Whereas with the PhD Candidate, one of the classes she taught was directly related to health/the field I'm interested in and she herself has an MPH, and I did write papers for both of her classes, so she may be able to elaborate more. The work letter would be from a summer job that wasn't in a field related to public health, but he knows of my interest in that area and he did supervise me everyday for 4 months, so he might be able to come up with more to say, but he doesn't have any experience in academia - would that be looked down upon by people in admissions? The referee form for one of the programs does ask for the referee to comment on academic ability, writing ability, and so on, and I'm not sure that the supervisor would know that side of me.

[fuzzylogician]

Could you ask the supervisor if he would be able to write anything about your academic ability?

On the face of it it sounds like the PhD camdidate could write the best letter but, of course, the problem is that a student can't really say much about another student's potential to succeed in a program and graduate on time, since they haven't even done that themselves. Is there a way to have someone else co-sign the letter with the student - e.g. their advisor/teaching supervisor/dept head, another instructor in the course, etc? That way you get all the benefits you described and also the advantage of experience behind your letter.

[maturia]

Could you ask the supervisor if he would be able to write anything about your academic ability?

On the face of it it sounds like the PhD camdidate could write the best letter but, of course, the problem is that a student can't really say much about another student's potential to succeed in a program and graduate on time, since they haven't even done that themselves. Is there a way to have someone else co-sign the letter with the student - e.g. their advisor/teaching supervisor/dept head, another instructor in the course, etc? That way you get all the benefits you described and also the advantage of experience behind your letter.

Well, one of the 2 profs I plan to ask does run the lab where the PhD candidate works - so someone above the candidate would also be writing about me, if they both accept (and I'm not totally sure the PhD candidate will anyways - it's been a while since I took their classes). Would that help? If only all the programs wanted just two references!

[Lud]

Why don't you ask the commission in charge of admissions about that? They might tell you properly if a reference from a PhD candidate bears a significant risk for you.