LORs - 2 academic and 1 professional? Vice versa?

[Santino]

I realize there is a dedicated forum for LOR questions, but i wanted to post this here since I figure the answer to my question may differ between an academic program, which is what most folks there are asking about, and a professional program like the MPP/IR degrees discussed here.

 

My question relates to the composition of your LORs in terms of number of academic vs. number of professional. I've read that the rule of thumb is 2 academic and 1 professional, but I'm not sure if that holds for professional degrees. Basically, I expect to have a very strong professional reference and a strong academic reference, but am torn on the final reference: either another professional reference that would also be strong but wouldn't add much in addition to the first professional reference (would be from the same job), or an academic reference that likely wouldn't be as strong as the first academic reference but would be from my undergrad major and from someone that got to know me personally at least to some degree.

 

I am leaning toward going with the second academic reference, but would appreciate any thoughts or advice. Have others pondered this question?

 

Thanks!

[scholl43]

If you know you have two really solid recs and the third is more or less icing on the cake, I'd go with the academic side.  First off, if you have less than 3 years of professional (paid, not internships), I'm not sure your resume warrants more than 1 professional letter.  Having two references from the same workplace could potentially say to someone, "This person didn't have enough options for references."  For that reason, I think it would be stronger to get another academic reference, especially if that person can really personalize it.

 

I had 2 years of experience and went with 1 academic (undergrad), 1 professional (current job), and 1 that was a past internship coordinator/supervisor and had become a colleague through a related organization.  That last one probably is rare, but it was nice to have as it was someone who knew me really well and had worked with me as both a subordinate and as a colleague of equal status.

[Santino]

Thanks for your advice! That's very helpful. I think I'll go with the second academic reference.