Is it OK to have a PhD student write one of the three LOR for PB schools?

[Furballer]

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I have a contact who I work with in a lab that can provide a pretty good LOR. I only have two right now, so this one could possibly help.

Thoughts?

 

[betterlate]

I have a contact who I work with in a lab that can provide a pretty good LOR. I only have two right now, so this one could possibly help.

Thoughts?

It depends. What is their position relative to yours? Are they the PI, running the lab? If so, then it would be an appropriate choice. If they are more of a colleague/coworker, then having a letter from them will be less helpful for your application, and could potentially be harmful.

Although the primary purpose of a letter of recommendation is to obtain an outside opinion of your aptitude, and performance history, letters also - both directly and indirectly - shed light on your personality and professionalism. Who you've chosen to be a letter writer can indirectly inform an adcom's opinion of you and your application.

If you choose someone to write a letter that the adcom interprets as not entirely appropriate, it can potentially harm your application in two ways: it implies that you didn't have a better person who was able/willing to write you a letter, which casts doubts on your past performance and aptitude. Secondly, it casts doubt on your professional judgement.

If possible, I would obtain the required letters from professors or work supervisors.If those letter writers don't know you personally and can't write a letter that really talks about you as a person, and this PhD candidate will be able to write a glowing letter about your performance AND knows you personally, then perhaps include such a letter in addition to the three required letters. If you do this, you may want to note in a cover letter the reasoning behind the extra letters, although I don't think an explanation is necessarily required.

Good luck!

 

[GreenMed]

As a Ph.D. student, I was involved in a lot of LORs, and usually if I knew the student much better than the P.I did, I would *actually* write the letter, but the P.I. would embellish and then send it herself. Is there any reason the actual lab P.I. wouldn't be willing to sign off on a letter for you? Another option is to have a letter co-signed by the Ph.D. student and P.I.

 

[betterlate]

As a Ph.D. student, I was involved in a lot of LORs, and usually if I knew the student much better than the P.I did, I would *actually* write the letter, but the P.I. would embellish and then send it herself. Is there any reason the actual lab P.I. wouldn't be willing to sign off on a letter for you? Another option is to have a letter co-signed by the Ph.D. student and P.I.

These are both excellent ideas, and common solutions to this question.

 

[johnnyscans]

These are both excellent ideas, and common solutions to this question.

This seems to be the case more often than not. The post-doc/PhD who mentors the student will write the letter, who will then send it to the PI for final revision and signing.

 

[Furballer]

Thank you all. I was so worried that the PI could only write it, but the PhD student writing it would write a heck-ova-lot better letter than the PI. I only see the PI maybe 1-3 times a week, including a lab meeting, but he's technically my supervisor (it's paid), while the PhD student is more of a mentor and teacher.

 

[johnnyscans]

Thank you all. I was so worried that the PI could only write it, but the PhD student writing it would write a heck-ova-lot better letter than the PI. I only see the PI maybe 1-3 times a week, including a lab meeting, but he's technically my supervisor (it's paid), while the PhD student is more of a mentor and teacher.

This is probably the case 95% of the time, so no sweat. I know for a fact my lab and our co-lab both handle letters this way.