2 Profs, 1 Athletic Coach, 1 Industry. Pick 3.

[pidayfriday]

I am applying to Mechanical Engineering PhD programs. The weakest part of my application is my GPA, which I explain in my statement of purpose was due to being a three-sport, Division I athlete (yes I know I should've spent more time on studying because it's my future and athletics is not, I know, I know). 

 

Prof 1: Been in four of his mechanical engineering classes, told me he would give his highest recommendation for me in the letter. This one is a #1 keeper for all my applications. 

Prof 2: Adviser for a senior design project and was in his mechanical engineering class. Also a very good recommendation, my #2. 

Coach: Confirm long practice time and commitment to team, varsity 4 years, captain 1 year. (Do grad schools even care about this?)

Boss: Industry work consisted mostly of 3D modeling and engineering design but we also gathered data about our process and analyzed it to improve it and make it more efficient. Am slightly worried about his writing skills/this being his first letter. I gave him heavy notes on how to write the letter and suggested a lot of content but he is adamantly and engineer and openly knows he is not great with writing etiquette. 

 

Questions: 

For applications that ask for 2 letters: I will include the two professors. Should I include, as supplementary, the one from my coach, or boss, or both? 

For applications that ask for 3 letters: I will include the two professors. Which should be the 3rd? Should the 4th be supplementary? 

 

Thank you in advance. 

 

[fuzzylogician]

For your third letter: your boss, hands down. Your coach can't speak to your academic abilities, writing, research, your potential to succeed in graduate school, or really about anything beyond your character as an athlete. Your abilities as an athlete aren't an obvious predictor for your ability to do well in an engineering graduate program. They might teach the adcom something about your ability to persevere and invest in something that matters to you, but they say nothing about how good a candidate you'd be for their program. 

As for the question of supplementary letters: to the extent that they are allowed, you should only submit them *if they strengthen your application*. There is no point in submitting a weak letter that wasn't required. If you think that the letter from your boss says new and positive things about you beyond what your professors say, you could add it. As for your coach, I don't think that makes too much sense, unless someone can come along and convince me otherwise. Thinking about it from your readers' perspective, you really don't want them walking away from your extra letter not understanding why you wasted their time reading something that didn't help their decision beyond what they already knew. (And just to be clear, they can already know that you were an athlete from your CV, and maybe you can find a way to mention it briefly somewhere else in your application.) 

[pidayfriday]

11 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

For your third letter: your boss, hands down. Your coach can't speak to your academic abilities, writing, research, your potential to succeed in graduate school, or really about anything beyond your character as an athlete. Your abilities as an athlete aren't an obvious predictor for your ability to do well in an engineering graduate program. They might teach the adcom something about your ability to persevere and invest in something that matters to you, but they say nothing about how good a candidate you'd be for their program. 

As for the question of supplementary letters: to the extent that they are allowed, you should only submit them *if they strengthen your application*. There is no point in submitting a weak letter that wasn't required. If you think that the letter from your boss says new and positive things about you beyond what your professors say, you could add it. As for your coach, I don't think that makes too much sense, unless someone can come along and convince me otherwise. Thinking about it from your readers' perspective, you really don't want them walking away from your extra letter not understanding why you wasted their time reading something that didn't help their decision beyond what they already knew. (And just to be clear, they can already know that you were an athlete from your CV, and maybe you can find a way to mention it briefly somewhere else in your application.) 

Thank you for this input. I will be telling a short anecdote in my personal statement about my athletics where I will cover the necessities and can possibly eliminate the need for a coach's letter. But I've also heard of people using a coach's letter and interviewers specifically mentioning how their qualities as an athlete would translate well as a dedicated researcher in their program. Again, it's possible that this can be conveyed in a few sentences in my statement instead of an entire letter.