Questionable Letter of Rec

[chubasaur]

I am a fourth year chemistry major who is applying M.D./Ph.D. this cycle.

For the first two and a half years of undergrad I did basic research in a biology lab on campus. After one and a half years of research, I began to realize that my interests had changed, and one year later I switched to a biomedical imaging lab, where I have been for the past academic semester and am continuing on into the summer.

I plan to pursue graduate training in an area closely related to my current research.

The graduate student that I worked with for 2.5 years has agreed to write me a strong letter of rec that will be cosigned. However, I know that I did not perform my best the last year that I was with him. My question is this:

Am I better off dropping the graduate student's questionable letter and going entirely with the letter from the new PI that I've been working with?

My goal is to get interviews.

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[Maebea]

If I did not see a letter from a 30-month research experience, I would think there was some sort of very serious problem. With several hundred applications to evaluate woulld I take the time to figure out what the problem was? Given that we make a $500k commitment for each student we train, I would likely assign your application a low priority and move on to the next one in the pile. Sorry to sound so crass, but applicants are fairly fungible, and we are looking for low-risk investments. Unless the rest of your application is truly exceptional, you would do more harm than good by excluding that letter. My advice would be to get the letter and see what happens.