LOR Advice Needed

[TooMuchResearch]

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My best LOR will come from my academic advisor. I have taken three of this person's classes. Unfortunately, this person is also my research advisor/PI and would be able to write me the strongest research related letter. Would it be better to get a less strong LOR from another faculty member to replace my advisor's academic letter so that I can get a research only letter, or is it okay to get a combined science LOR + research LOR?

I'm a little worried about only having 4-5 LORs for schools that take more, and getting a less strong science LOR to let my advisor write a research only letter would put me in the 5-6 range. Has anyone else had a similar problem?

 

[TooMuchResearch]

*sigh* I must need flashier titles to get people to respond...

 

[GoSpursGo]

By all means, just have him write you a combined science-research LOR. The number really doesn't matter- I had "only" 4, but I knew they were all awesome. Getting any more would likely be redundant- what will one science teacher be able to say about you that another science teacher wouldn't ALSO put in their letter, for example?

Just because other people will be sending 6-7 letters doesn't necessarily mean people are saying better things about them.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

By all means, just have him write you a combined science-research LOR. The number really doesn't matter- I had "only" 4, but I knew they were all awesome. Getting any more would likely be redundant- what will one science teacher be able to say about you that another science teacher wouldn't ALSO put in their letter, for example?

Just because other people will be sending 6-7 letters doesn't necessarily mean people are saying better things about them.

Thanks. You give good advice. 🙂

 

[Hill Country]

Quality is definitely better than quantity when it comes to these things, I've talked to a few deans and they've said they can often tell when the writer is not familiar with the student so if the choice is between more LoRs or less but stronger LoRs, I'd go with the latter.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

I emailed a few schools, and they actually advised that I have my PI write a research only letter...they were not overly clear if she can also write one of my science faculty LORs, so...😕