Who to ask letters of recommendation from?

[red4tribe]

I'm working on getting my application together to apply for the Fall of 2014. Should I stick solely with my history professors when it comes to recommendations for my application? I work at a museum. and therefore am considering asking one of my bosses to write one for me as well. Do you think a variety of sources is more appealing to schools or strictly history professors? 

[shaboomshaboom]

If I were you, I would get 3 letters from your history professors, and then another letter from your museum employer. I think the letters from the professors would carry more weight, but adding another letter from the museum would help (just my opinion).

 

Are you limited to only 3 letters, or can you send as many as you'd like? 

[red4tribe]

I think it depends on the school, thought I believe most only ask for three. 

[CageFree]

If you are still in school or graduated in the last 3-4 years, letters from profs are best. I included a non-academic letter but I had been out of academia for 12 years, so I was lucky to have one, let alone two letters from undergrad professors. My non-academic letter was from the principal at the school where I taught, so it attested to my teaching and thus was relevant. Still, the academic letters carried more weight.

[Professor Plum]

Does your boss at the museum have a PhD? The admissions committee is chiefly interested in your ability to do successful work at the doctoral level, something that someone who lacks that experience cannot usually speak to with authority.

[red4tribe]

No, he has his M.A in Public History but not his PHD. 

[czesc]

One issue to keep in mind is that schools will want to see some sort of evaluation of prior performance in graduate school, even if it wasn't in history. I went to law school before my PhD and included a letter from a law professor (who had a history MA but not a PhD). I still got in one place. It may have hurt me at others, though.

 

If I had had the opportunity I would have definitely tried to include an additional letter from a historian, covering all my bases.

[Sigaba]

Should I stick solely with my history professors when it comes to recommendations for my application?

Yes.

[Professor Plum]

No, he has his M.A in Public History but not his PHD. 

 

I'd omit the letter in that case. I'm sure it's a glowing review of your performance at the museum, but there's unlikely to be much in there that strengthens your case for admission to the PhD program.

[hdunlop]

How about this one. Am I better with two history professors (one full who I took a nondegree grad class from, one associate from my middle-ranked liberal arts college who I did my undergrad thesis with) and a history PHD who works as a military command historian that I worked with, or three history professors (the third an emeritus I took a bunch of classes from in undergrad). The undergrad experience was 8 years ago.

[Professor Plum]

What was the nature of your work with the military command historian?  How recent was it? Are you applying with a focus in military history?

[Sigaba]

How about this one. Am I better with two history professors (one full who I took a nondegree grad class from, one associate from my middle-ranked liberal arts college who I did my undergrad thesis with) and a history PHD who works as a military command historian that I worked with, or three history professors (the third an emeritus I took a bunch of classes from in undergrad). The undergrad experience was 8 years ago.

 

Depending upon the schools to which you apply and the specific command for which the historian works, you might want to consider carefully using a LOR from that individual. For example, if you apply to a school that has an emphasis on the Pacific rim and the historian works for USPACOM, the LOR may do more harm than good. Such are the legacies of the navy's role in American imperialism. 

 

On the other hand, if you apply to a school that has military historians and the historian works for USSOCOM, you may be especially GTG.

 

Overall, you may benefit from doing some background research on your programs to see if faculty members were opponents or proponents of OEF and OIF, if not also the presidency of Bush the Younger.

 

My $0.02.

[czesc]

Not all military historians study recent US history: ones who are active at my school study Germany and ancient Rome, for example. I'm not so sure those fine distinctions will matter for the OP if applying to work with such people or in a field other than military history.

 

And even if a department is very left wing, they may not hold military experience or ties against an applicant. Quite a few departments are known for being generally if not radically leftist and still admit PhD students with military backgrounds year after year. After all, applicants with military backgrounds may have good language training, experience working abroad, leadership skills that might translate well to teaching and the heightened possibility of placement into some sort of academy or war college - and I do think departments think ahead to placement advantages to some extent when making admissions decisions. 

[Sigaba]

Not all military historians study recent US history: ones who are active at my school study Germany and ancient Rome, for example. I'm not so sure those fine distinctions will matter for the OP if applying to work with such people or in a field other than military history. And even if a department is very left wing, they may not hold military experience or ties against an applicant. Quite a few departments are known for being generally if not radically leftist and still admit PhD students with military backgrounds year after year. After all, applicants with military backgrounds may have good language training, experience working abroad, leadership skills that might translate well to teaching and the heightened possibility of placement into some sort of academy or war college - and I do think departments think ahead to placement advantages to some extent when making admissions decisions.

Do you study military history or the interrelationships between military historiography, academic historiography, and military affairs?

[hdunlop]

What was the nature of your work with the military command historian?  How recent was it? Are you applying with a focus in military history?

 

We worked together on the same projects in our office. In a sense, I was his supervisor. Which is weird. To the second question: yes.

 

[Thoughtful stuff] My $0.02.

 

You make some really good points. I think, or at least naively hope, I'm clean of most of those issues, all of which I'm painfully aware given my professional work. I'd love to engage about this in PM.

[czesc]

Do you study military history or the interrelationships between military historiography, academic historiography, and military affairs?

 

I'm not really sure what you mean by "military affairs" in this context. I'm guessing something to do with contemporary US military operations? My point was that there's a world of military history that doesn't relate specifically to the US military and/or what it's up to at any given moment, so I'm not sure how that's relevant.

 

For what it's worth I don't work specifically on military history, but I'm in a small department which has several and my understanding of the subject is based in a large part on my exposure to their work and methods. 

Edited September 23, 2013 by czesc