How far can a recommendation take me?

[whybanana]

Curious as to how much impact recommendation letters have at the graduate level. I know that one of my references (research mentor for the past 3 years) wrote me an absolutely amazing recommendation - but I'm not sure how much this will offset some of the "sub-par" aspects of my application (i.e. GPA).  Anyone ever in a similar situation and can offer me some insight? Thanks!

[Concordia]

That probably depends on the department.  But were the "sub-par" elements temporary-- due to health, family issues, mis-matched major, etc.-- or otherwise irrelevant to the fabulous researcher you've become now?  A good recommendation might help someone see things that way.  There are a bunch of threads here from people with low GPAs who managed to right their ship and move on.

[Eigen]

Everything in your application balances together. Some are more important, and some less- i.e., a good recommendation and research experience is more important than grades and GRE scores, up to a point. There are minimum GPAs and GRE scores that it's really hard to recover from. 

The other thing to remember is that it's a competitive process. Having 3 fantastic letters (one won't really do the trick) will help attenuate low GPA, but there are people who will be applying that have both 3 fantastic letters and good GPAs. 

This is also going to depend a lot on the country, I'd imagine- I'm answering mostly for US institutions, but if I remember some of your past posts, you're looking for UK masters degrees? That's an entirely different game. 

[whybanana]

47 minutes ago, Eigen said:

Everything in your application balances together. Some are more important, and some less- i.e., a good recommendation and research experience is more important than grades and GRE scores, up to a point. There are minimum GPAs and GRE scores that it's really hard to recover from. 

The other thing to remember is that it's a competitive process. Having 3 fantastic letters (one won't really do the trick) will help attenuate low GPA, but there are people who will be applying that have both 3 fantastic letters and good GPAs. 

This is also going to depend a lot on the country, I'd imagine- I'm answering mostly for US institutions, but if I remember some of your past posts, you're looking for UK masters degrees? That's an entirely different game. 

 

Thanks for the advice! I believe that all my letters are excellent, with this one in particular really standing out (literally cried when I read it; the professor is also an alumnus of my top choice university). I have a lot of research experience (w/ 1 pub and an honors thesis), a great PS and a strong upward trend. The only thing getting me down is my overall unimpressive/subpar GPA (I elaborated on some mitigating circumstances in my PS). 

Yeah, I'm currently looking into UK masters degrees. I only received one offer so far. Not sure how much emphasis there is on the "whole" application with those institutions, but I, at the very least, meet their academic requirements for entry. That's about all I can tell.