Suggestions for a 3rd LOR

[shadowclaw]

Hi everyone! I am currently halfway through a masters program in biology and preparing my application materials for the upcoming application season. I am trying to decide which professors to ask for a LOR for ecology PhD programs. I have two pretty solid choices so far. First, I plan to ask one of my undergraduate professors that I took many classes with and worked with in the field on a few projects, and I also stay in touch with him. He wrote me a LOR when I applied to grad school last time (and got accepted into several masters programs), and I'm sure he would so again.

Second, I plan to ask my advisor in my masters program. He oversees my research so he's naturally a good choice, although I have never taken a class with him, so he cannot speak as to how I perform academically. Also, even though he is my advisor and helped me plan my thesis (as well as get me some grant money), he isn't really involved... he basically just lets me do my own thing and occasionally gives me feedback if I pester him. So I'm really not sure exactly what he would have to say other than I write and speak well, I meet deadlines, and I make data appear in my lab notebooks. But he's my advisor, so it's kind of expected that I get a LOR from him.

So person number 3 is where I need to make a decision. I've only had 2 semesters of graduate coursework, so I don't have too many options. The two best options are the other members of my thesis committee. I took 2 classes with professor 1, did well in both, and also did a little research for one of his classes, which I was able to present at a couple meetings/conferences. For professor 2, I took one class with her and also did well, and I am working with her on getting a review paper published.

Other possibilities include a professor that I took one class with and will be taking another with this fall. He is the department chair, and other professors in the department have told me that he has said good things about me to them, so I know it would be a positive LOR. Another possibility is another of my undergraduate professors who served as both my advisor and my senior project mentor (and took several classes with him).

Any thoughts? Thanks!

[lyrehc]

If you want there is nothing wrong with having an extra letter of recommendation.

 

If you don't want to go that route, when you think about your possibilities who can you envision being the most passionate about you and why you should attend a PhD?  That passion will go further than anything else.  When someone can specifically discuss your strengths and weaknesses and not sound like a cookie cutter programs pay attention.

 

Good luck.

[TakeruK]

I actually think an extra LOR could be harmful if you have 2 great ones (persons 1 and 2) and then 2 average ones (the other choices you mention). It's far better to submit 2 great letters and 1 good letter than 2 great letters and 2 good letters. You don't want to "dilute" the great letters!

 

I think both of your "letter 3" choices are good. I would like to suggest that you don't have to pick between one or the other for all your schools. That is, you might use one person as your 3rd letter for some applications and the other person for another set of applications.

 

You might want to ask both of these about potentially writing you a LOR in the next couple of months to make sure they will be willing to do so. Then, compile your final list of schools and discuss them with your first 2 LOR writers. Then, you might find that for some of these schools, "professor 1" might be a good 3rd choice but for others, "professor 2" might be better. Criteria you might use to determine this could be: maybe one professor's research interest/expertise is more well aligned with the school's interests, maybe one professor is well known by the members of that department (collaborators, used to work there, etc.), or perhaps they have written successful LORs for applicants to this school before, etc. You could determine this also by asking these two professors directly. If you have a good relationship with them, you can probably directly ask them for advice on which schools they feel that they can write a strong letter for you. 

[shadowclaw]

Thank you, lyrehc and TakeruK. I don't think I want to go the route of having 4 LORs, but I think it may be an excellent idea to have both write LORs for different schools. I know professor 2 got her PhD and worked as a post-doc at one of the schools I plan to apply to, so she would probably be a great choice for that school. However, I'm not sure who would write more passionately about me! I do think professor 2 could probably do a better job writing about my strengths and weaknesses, as we've interacted a bit more and had some discussions about my work, while professor 1 has mostly just given out grades and that was the end of it. You have both given some great things to think about!