Can not having the right references weaken your application?

[Nelly Mc]

Can not having the right references weaken your application?  If the graduate application asks for references or recommendations from certain faculty members from the undergraduate school you attended but you don't use these references can this weaken your application?  

[Eigen]

I've never seen a requirement like this, but if they ask for specific recommendations and you don't have them, I'm not sure they'd even consider it- they might consider the application incomplete. 

[Nelly Mc]

13 minutes ago, Eigen said:

I've never seen a requirement like this, but if they ask for specific recommendations and you don't have them, I'm not sure they'd even consider it- they might consider the application incomplete. 

I will have them they just wont be from school faculty members, they will be from supervisors I worked with or volunteered for? Will this still be acceptable? It's an Advanced Standing MSW program. 

[samman1994]

I'm afraid I have personally never encountered this, but I have a friend applying for optometry school, and they I believe ask specifically where it should come from and how many (i.e. say 2 from industry or wherever you have done clinical work at and 2 from academia). From what he has told me, its better to not give refererences than give more than they want form a certain source (i.e. giving 2 from academia and 0 from industry is better than 4 from academia). 

[Eigen]

2 hours ago, Nelly Mc said:

I will have them they just wont be from school faculty members, they will be from supervisors I worked with or volunteered for? Will this still be acceptable? It's an Advanced Standing MSW program. 

Depends on the wording of what the school requires. Since you're not saying what they require, I can't guess as to whether they'll be acceptable or not. 

But generally, if a school lists requirements for the letters, meeting them isn't really optional in my view. 

[Nelly Mc]

13 minutes ago, Eigen said:

Depends on the wording of what the school requires. Since you're not saying what they require, I can't guess as to whether they'll be acceptable or not. 

But generally, if a school lists requirements for the letters, meeting them isn't really optional in my view. 

The program wants LOR to be by a program director or field instructor. But I feel they wouldnt know much about my skills and performance and not give me a fair review rather than the field supervisor who I've worked closely with in field placements. 

[TakeruK]

11 hours ago, Nelly Mc said:

The program wants LOR to be by a program director or field instructor. But I feel they wouldnt know much about my skills and performance and not give me a fair review rather than the field supervisor who I've worked closely with in field placements. 

If you feel that the program director or field instructor did not work with you enough to write you a letter, I think you should first ask the school you're applying to if they will accept a letter from your field supervisor instead. Just to clarify if it is a strict requirement or if they are just suggesting these two people to avoid people getting the wrong idea and sending in letters from personal references etc.

If they insist on a program director or field instructor, I would pick the person that knows your field supervisor the best. Then, ask your field supervisor and your chosen person to write you a letter, explaining the application requirements. They probably know what to do, but if not, you could suggest that it's a jointly signed letter or that your field supervisor write the letter for the other person to sign, or that your field supervisor provides the notes so that the other person can write a letter based on their notes to supplement what they know about you.

The last case is really common for other fields, not sure about yours. When I supervised an undergrad's research one summer, my own advisor was technically the mentor. I met with the student almost every day and my advisor met with them every 1-2 weeks. But a letter from a grad student won't be very helpful to the undergrad student so at the end of the summer, I wrote a list of notes for my advisor to use to write a reference letter for the student in future years. 

[Nelly Mc]

38 minutes ago, TakeruK said:

If you feel that the program director or field instructor did not work with you enough to write you a letter, I think you should first ask the school you're applying to if they will accept a letter from your field supervisor instead. Just to clarify if it is a strict requirement or if they are just suggesting these two people to avoid people getting the wrong idea and sending in letters from personal references etc.

If they insist on a program director or field instructor, I would pick the person that knows your field supervisor the best. Then, ask your field supervisor and your chosen person to write you a letter, explaining the application requirements. They probably know what to do, but if not, you could suggest that it's a jointly signed letter or that your field supervisor write the letter for the other person to sign, or that your field supervisor provides the notes so that the other person can write a letter based on their notes to supplement what they know about you.

The last case is really common for other fields, not sure about yours. When I supervised an undergrad's research one summer, my own advisor was technically the mentor. I met with the student almost every day and my advisor met with them every 1-2 weeks. But a letter from a grad student won't be very helpful to the undergrad student so at the end of the summer, I wrote a list of notes for my advisor to use to write a reference letter for the student in future years. 

This way definitely makes sense, Thank you so much!!