How helpful are connections in another subfield?

[Catria]

Suppose that one of your recommenders have a connection to one of the depts you're applying to. However, that recommender tells you that his connection's research is unrelated to the subfield you want to study. How helpful is one such connection?

 

Perhaps it is not going to be as helpful as a connection in the same subfield as you, but is it still helpful somewhat?

[TakeruK]

From what I've seen, admissions committees are generally made up of people across the entire departments (i.e. all subfields) so if the person that your prof knows is on your admission committee, it could be a good thing. 

[Catria]

I was confused because that recommender assumed that the effect of a connection is greatest if that connection was in the same subfield as you, or closely related, because they have a greater ability to bat for your application (as long as you clearly articulate your research desires).

[TakeruK]

Sure, I think the best effect is that if someone on the admissions committee would say something like "I definitely would take Catria as my PhD student" (which would require them to be in the same subfield as you). But it seems that US schools admit by committee, not by professor, so any voice that is favourable for you would help. That is, to answer your original question, yes, it would be a good thing if someone in the same department went to bat for you, and still good even if they are in a different subfield. 

 

Of course, every school probably does things differently. In my program, there are 6 main subfields in our "department" and each year, the goal is to admit about N students across all 6 subfields, without regard to how many are admitted to each subfield each year (the idea is that long term averages will work out). They make about 2N offers each year and sometimes my subfield makes about 25% of the offers (like in my year) and others (like another recent year), my subfield only accounts for 10% of the offers. Thus, in a case like this, a voice from another subfield may have almost the same impact as a voice from your own subfield.

[ilovelab]

Suppose that one of your recommenders have a connection to one of the depts you're applying to. However, that recommender tells you that his connection's research is unrelated to the subfield you want to study. How helpful is one such connection?

 

Perhaps it is not going to be as helpful as a connection in the same subfield as you, but is it still helpful somewhat?

It depends on whether the connection is  on the adcom or not. Unless you have a super famous PI writing your LoR then it all depends on if the adcom knows you PI. They don't have to personally know your PI but if they have heard of him is a definite boost. Ex: Everyone in molecular biology knows who Dr. Yamanaka is due to the groundbreaking ipsc work he's done that's changed the field of stem cell biology. Most PI's might not personally know him, but if he goes to bat for you in a LoR it definitely has a greater influence than a PI who the adcom doesn't know.