Odd to have an LOR with two authors?

[907914]

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For one of my science letters, the primary letter writer at this point was my Genetics professor (summer class, unfortunately), who I also TA'd genetics for, is my advisor for biotechnology and will be my professor for Molecular next quarter. However, his wife (also PhD in our biology department) was my Cell biology professor last quarter and she has acted as an informal premed advisor. I received 4.0 in each of their classes (save for Molecular as I haven't taken it yet, but I am 99.99% sure that will be a 4.0 as well).

I figured they could both contribute different, but still good, opinions and perspectives towards evaluating me. And, due to their proximity of being married, I was wondering would I be able to ask them for a dual letter that is written by both of them and signed by both of them? Would that even make sence to do and would it even be worth it?

Thanks for any feedback!

 

[DameJulie]

I asked a similar question last year, and I was told it’s better to have two separate letters

 

[907914]

Two separate is much more common and therefore doesnt risk raising the question”why did this guy do something odd like 2 authors? Is there something else odd here?”

Righteous. I already have enough to make my application stand out without raising any questions, won’t do something that “stands out” that will raise questions.

 

[DrFortiusNatando]

In the OP's case, he should have 2 letters. But for others on this thread, it is ok to have 2 letter writers write a joint letter in certain cases. One is when you worked with 2 people in the same lab. Often, the lower tier person (ie post-doc) may know you much better through working day to day with you, but if the PI is a big gun, and they know you even from your intelligent contributions in lab meeting, they can co-sign the letter. Another would be if you worked clinically with two people in the same clinical experience. Many times they are happy to co-write a letter - though one has to take the lead on the project and incorporate the other's POV. Joint letters in these cases are better than 2 separate letters, especially if the more senior letter writer does not know the applicant all that well.

For residency apps, we see this all the time as the max number of letters is only 3 or 4, depending on program.