LOR advice

[Jelly Bones]

Hi all,

I'm trying to narrow down my list of LOR writers and I am unsure about a couple.

1- I did my undergrad honors project under the direct supervision of a PhD student and didn't interact as much with the PI. The student was most familiar with my work and could write a really good recommendation for me. How bad is it to get a letter from a student (direct supervisor) vs. PI? Would it be possible to get a letter written by the student and somehow cosigned by the PI or should I just get one from the PI?

2- As a graduate student I have been collaborating closely with a postdoc from another lab and its basically the same dilemma as above. I haven't interacted directly with the PI as much and the post-doc could write a much stronger LOR. Do I go with the PI or post-doc to talk about this experience?

A lot of schools specify that they want letters from "supervisors" of any lab worked in, but I'm not sure if this specifically means faculty and how flexible they are with that rule if its for the sake of a stronger letter?


Thanks in advance!

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[gutonc]

You need LORs from faculty, not grad students or post-docs. If the PIs want to collaborate on a letter with those people, that's fine, but it needs to come from the PI or you shouldn't bother.

 

[Jelly Bones]

Thanks for the response @gutonc

Both of the supervising faculty agreed to collaborate with the people who worked with me directly on a letter so I'm good in that sense.

I have another slight issue now. I'm applying international and since some schools don't accept us for MD-PhD I think I'll have to apply to some for MD only. How do I work around this with respect to LOR content? Should I ask my writers to write a balanced letter for MD and PhD to work both ways, or is it better to have letters specifically saying I'm interested in MD-PhD and that I would be good for it even for the MD only schools?

Also, how important are non-science recommendations when you have a research-heavy background? I can get very strong letters from science faculty I interacted with during my MSc. If I had to find non-science faculty I would have to go back to an English class 5 years back that would probably not be as good. Alternatively, I can get a letter from a course coordinator for a lab I TAed but that probably falls under science also..