Letters of recommendation?
November 30, 2010 8:21 AM   Subscribe

Of these 5 people, who should I ask for letters of recommendation. Details inside.

I am applying for a PhD in social psych. I currently have a masters. I have 5 people that I could potentially get letters of recommendation from and I am not sure who I should ask.

I am an older than average student who has been out of my masters program for over three years. I currently work in IT for my day job and teach psych part-time at a two year college in the evenings for fun.

Two undergrad profs who would write good letters.
A masters prof who would write an average letter.
My current day job supervisor who would write an excellent letter.
My teaching supervisor (with a masters, not a PhD) who would write an excellent letter.

I know normally faculty are the go-to people for letters of recommendation, but I am thrown off by the fact I am older than the average student and the fact that my work supervisors would provide me with excellent letters.

I need to ask this week. I have procrastinated too long already in making this decision. Help?
posted by Silvertree to Work & Money (10 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is easier than you think. You should only ask people who would write excellent letters.

Teaching supervisor and current work supervisor both have current experience with you, which matters most. Have your teaching supervisor focus on your academic side, and your work supervisor focus on your work ethics and problem solving skills. Done!
posted by fake at 8:25 AM on November 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


2nd-ing the two who would give you excellent letters. To add to what Fake said, I would see what skills you have or that your supervisor says you have (anything he/she thinks you do really well that they point out on a performance review for instance?) that are relevant to the PhD program or that you could argue for.

The only thing that would change who should write the letter is if the masters prof has worked with you significantly longer and is still reasonably recent but it sounds like neither of those conditions is true..
posted by VTX at 8:35 AM on November 30, 2010


Check the requirements/recommendations of the programs you are applying to. I'm looking at biology programs and I know some schools recommend "two science faculty" and the like. (Of course, I'm ignoring that since, like you, I am an older applicant and haven't been in academia for 4 yrs now...)
posted by maryr at 8:38 AM on November 30, 2010


Nthing the excellent letters. You didn't mention how many letters you need, though. I would probably ask X+1 people for those letters - you never know who's going to flake out on you.
posted by metarkest at 8:39 AM on November 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm a social psych PhD who has been through the process and now assists students in getting into graduate school. I agree with the idea of wanting the excellent letters, but you do need letters from someone regarding your academic ability.

I would definitely send the letter from your teaching supervisor. I would also ask for the letters from the undergrad profs. You probably need three letters, but it's generally okay to send a fourth if it adds to what's already being described about you. This is where you have to think about the specifics of what each person would discuss. Your current supervisor's letter would need to be tailored to talk about your skills in academic-related things. Do you learn quickly, write well, seek out new findings in your field, etc?

If you have the expectation that your master's will be accepted by the PhD program, you really should have some sort of recommendation from that program. If you feel that you'll have to do the thesis within the new program anyway, then it likely doesn't matter so much.
posted by bizzyb at 8:53 AM on November 30, 2010


Excellent letters generally trump this one. But be careful how you're determining excellence. You MUST have evidence of competence/excellence in terms of academic and research potential. You must have the letters speak to these items specifically. If they are absent, your 'excellent' letter is useless. The key point is that the letter must have lots of detail that indicates they know you and your abilities, and your weaknesses, and your potential. Who will write with this kind of detail? If in doubt, try to send more letters than is customary (you can find out from grad admissions whether this is possible). I think it would be risky (and may be viewed with suspicion) to send in an application without a letter from your previous academic supervisor. In any case, instruct your referees to speak to teaching, work, research, academic potential directly as much as possible. FWIW I am a prof who writes reference letters.
posted by kch at 8:59 AM on November 30, 2010 [1 favorite]


I have no experience with social psych programs, but for a grad school application, I think that your three excellent reference candidates are the right ones.
posted by zippy at 9:36 AM on November 30, 2010


On what are you basing your statement that your masters and undergraduate professors would write you less-than-excellent letters?

If you haven't already done so, I would suggest contacting those instructors and asking them for specific advice. A decent instructor will tell you whether their letter will be as strong as it should be, especially if you ask directly.

I will tell you that my letters did not end up coming from the people who I thought should write them. I was particularly shocked by getting a strong letter from the professor of a large lecture class I'd taken 4 years previously. I only asked him because the other people I was asking for letters said, repeatedly, "you shouldn't ask me, you should ask Dr. ----".

Also, please make sure that the people who write your letters are experienced in writing letters for graduate school applications. In my first (failed) round of PhD apps, one of my letters came from a supervisor who thought I walked on water, but I saw the letter afterward and realized she simply had no idea what the appropriate content would have been. (There were other problems with that app and I am not blaming her, but it was a misjudgment on my part.)
posted by endless_forms at 9:53 AM on November 30, 2010


The profs. A great letter is important, but it will carry a lot more weight if the writer has some standing in the field you're applying for.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 10:33 AM on November 30, 2010


I read a lot of letters of rec (for computer science and human-computer interaction, not social psych).

Letters of rec from people w/o PhDs or outside of academia are ok but typically aren't great, because they don't know how to calibrate things (top 5% of people I've worked with, top 10%, etc) and can't say what your research potential is.

So unless your day job supervisor has supervised lots of people, I'd suggest not getting one from him/her for this reason.

For the teaching supervisor, I'd only get one from him/her if they can say things like, "Silvertree was able to dissect research papers with a high level of skill, had penetrating insights in homework assignments, and asked insightful questions in class. I've taught about 500 students in the past N years, and I'd rank Silvertree in the top 5% of all students I've interacted with". It's hard to say whether this person would understand this or not without knowing more about them. For example, if they have had a lot of students go on to PhD programs, then they probably know how the game works.
posted by jasonhong at 11:55 AM on November 30, 2010


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