Does it matter from whom we receive a LOR

[john888]

Hi

I wonder does that matter if our recommender is assistant professor or associate or full professor ? 

Do graduate school committee care about that ? 

Also is that correct that LOR from a lecturer carries less weight than faculty member?

[TakeruK]

The reputation of your letter writer does matter a bit. There is a small difference between a letter from an assistant prof and a full prof. For example, a letter saying "This student is the best out of all students I ever advised" means a lot more from a full professor who has advised 50 students compared to a new professor who might have only advised 5. 

 

However, I would say that the content of your letter is more important than reputation of letter writer. That is, a weak letter from a famous prof is not better than a very personal and glowing letter from a less well known professor. 

 

So, my advice is to pick professors that know you well. In research based fields, pick people who supervised your research work, not people who just taught you classes. Unless you are very accomplished and/or very lucky, it is rare for a student to have more than 3 people who know them very well and have done great research with all of them.