dr vs professor

[tyleryeager]

SO i have a few of my old professors willing to write letters. I only need 3 letters, and some of the proffessors are more ''reliable/not lazy'' than others. two of the three reliable ones are doctors, while just has his masters, but has taught for many years(now retired).

Is it going to hurt me having one non phd in my list? His letter is going to be the most glowing too, as he really liked me.

 

I also had two other questions.

1-The application asks me to describe relevant work experience. I dont have any RELEVANT work experience...just unrelated experience...what do  iwrite here?

2-the application asks ''what is the name of your prospective faculty mentor?''...i have no diea what this even means...I dont have a mentor that  iam working under...is this required/typical?

[TakeruK]

I don't think "lazy" is the right adjective here -- maybe "busy" or "doesn't prioritize LORs". Anyways....

 

I am not sure what type of program you are applying for, so I will write this as if you are applying for a research based PhD. I am in a scientific field, so my comments may lean that way but I think most of this can be quite general.

 

It would be better to have PhDs writing your letters, but a letter from someone who knows you well is also worth more. It's hard to judge/quantify how much more "glowing" the letter needs to be before it can be better than a PhD's letter. Maybe you can get advice from a different prof who knows the people in question. 

 

You should probably just stick to relevant work experience (i.e. don't discuss any part-time or full time jobs you might have taken while in college). But, it doesn't have to be specifically in the field that you are applying to. If you have any research experience at all, no matter what field, it would be helpful. If you have work experience outside of school, then things like programming experience, or data analysis etc. might also be helpful. Basically, think about any work you have done that requires or develops a skill that you might use in grad school and discuss that! There might be more than you think!

 

Prospective faculty mentor is someone at that program that you are interested in working with if you get into that school. Generally, for many research based programs, it's a good idea to have at least one person (sometimes 2-3 people) in mind that might make a good mentor for you. Here, the department is probably looking to see where you would fit in and if you have done your "homework" in thinking about what you are interested in. It's an important question to ask yourself because you want to make sure you have a good fit at any school you are applying to (and potentially spend a lot of time). You might be able to fit multiple names in that box and it's not like you are obligated to work with that person in most cases (unless that program admits people directly into certain groups).

Edited November 12, 2013 by TakeruK

[Loric]

A PhD who can't/wont write you a strong and compelling letter is not better than ANYONE who would write you a strong and compelling letter.

 

If the PhD is going to come off as disinterested in you and crank out a generic form letter it wont mean much.

 

The typical protocal is to rate things on a rubric. Your test score, your grades, letters, SOP.. assign it a value, see if the whole (weighted to your major) meets baseline, and then debate amoung the adcomm. A "meh" letter wont rate high. It wont sink you, but it wont rate high.

 

If someone without a PhD can talk more intelligently about you and your work, choose that person.

[tyleryeager]

Thanks! I had some other phds say they'd write letters, but they werent as reliable as this guy, and one of them even emailed me the eltter, which shows he doesnt know how this works.

 

The masters guy is really dedicated about writing me a quality letter. i think he along with two phds should be good. He also got a  masters in my safety school that im applying for.