Do all professor letter writers have to have their PH.d?

[cryhavoc]

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Two questions:

-Am I allowed to get my non-science letter from someone with a master's degree, working on doctorate, who was the sole professor of my class?

-Are lab instructors allowed for one of my science letters? This person doesn't have a doctorate either but is employed by the school.

 

[darkeon]

You are allowed to. However the lack of doctorate indicates that the professor has had little to no time and experience in teaching and thus cannot analyze a student's merit nor compare to students of current and past semesters and years.
For your first case, if you truly feel it will be a strong letter than I'd guess go for it. For the second case, lab ta are usually grad students so definitely not as credible for adcom members. If that's you, then see if u can get the letter cosigned by the prof teaching your lecture portion of the class.
Again, there's that view (sometimes unjust) of a non phd professor but I'd like to believe that very strong content in the letter can override that. Perhaps others can chime in, particularly those who have done what you are proposing to do.

 

[karling]

Of my four professor LORs, only one had a doctorate. I can't say for sure what adcoms felt about that, but it was never brought up. I really don't think it's much of an issue.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

As long as it is an instructor (i.e are they teaching and grading) then it satisfies the requirement.

You are allowed to. However the lack of doctorate indicates that the professor has had little to no time and experience in teaching and thus cannot analyze a student's merit nor compare to students of current and past semesters and years.
For your first case, if you truly feel it will be a strong letter than I'd guess go for it. For the second case, lab ta are usually grad students so definitely not as credible for adcom members. If that's you, then see if u can get the letter cosigned by the prof teaching your lecture portion of the class.
Again, there's that view (sometimes unjust) of a non phd professor but I'd like to believe that very strong content in the letter can override that. Perhaps others can chime in, particularly those who have done what you are proposing to do.

Not necessarily. I've had professors who only had masters degrees in a few courses. I've also had a course taught by a bona fide grad student without any supervision or oversight from anyone. These are all adequate people to get a letter from.

However getting one from a TA of a course is not satisfactory. However you can ask them to write it and ask your professor to simply sign it as they do frequently.

 

[Goro]

I'm less than impressed if a LOR is from a grad student or TA. MS is OK, if the person has a Faculty level title like Instructor or Lecturer.

Two questions:

-Am I allowed to get my non-science letter from someone with a master's degree, working on doctorate, who was the sole professor of my class?

-Are lab instructors allowed for one of my science letters? This person doesn't have a doctorate either but is employed by the school.