Questions about letters of recommendation

[dakwegmo]

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I currently have two professors who are going to be writing me letters of recommendation, both of whom I have done some research with, and both will be writing good letters for me. The question involves my third letter. I have asked my employer for the last 6 years to write a letter for me. My employment has been in a field not exactly related to psychology or social sciences. He said he would sign a letter if I wrote it, so I am working on that. I have also asked the graduate student who I have worked with closely. The graduate student says that she will gladly write me a letter for anywhere, but she does not think that Ph.D programs will be interested in her opinion. I tend to disagree, since she taught two of my undergrad psychology classes, and since she could speak better than anyone about my academic ability and probability of success in grad school.

So my questions are these:
1. Would I be better off with a recommendation from the grad student I have worked with, or my employer?
2. If the application requires 3 letters of recommendation, what do they do if you have more than 4? Will they consider all of them, just the first 3?

Ok, that's it for now. I am sure there will be more.

 

[UMAPsych]

I am in the same exact situation. I have two letters of recommendation from professors, and one from a grad student who taught one of my classes, and who was basically my direct supervisor for the last two years of college. I think his recommendation is important, and I am sticking with these three people. Hopefully it isn't a problem! I would like to know the answer to this question as well.

 

[lazure]

you could send four letters and let the individual schools decide what to do with the extra letters....as long as you have two research related letters you should be fine....

 

[PsychEval]

There probably are a lot of different opinions on this. My thought is, if they ask for three letters of recommendation, send three letters of recommendation. Not trying to be overly detail oriented, but by sending 3 letters you are demonstrating you can follow directions.

 

[twiggers]

I was always told not to have them from graduate students, since professors/research advisors are more likely to be taken more seriously. Because of this I ended up getting 2 solid letters (each letter actually had 2 authors), and then asked a two professors I didn't know too well for a letter. They all gave me a copy of letter beforehand, and they were all great letters.
Schools that didn't have a limit I sent all 4. Those that asked for 3 letters I sent in all 4, and in my cover letter explained that I did so, and that if they only wanted 3 to throw away the one from so-and-so (what I judged to be the weakest letter).

On that note....what lazure said is true...at least 2 should be from research related person. I think schools would probably look more seriously at a graduate student than an employer. I would send all 4 and use the cover letter thing. I actually called some schools and asked if I could send more than 3 and they all said yes, but I still used the cover letter.
I don't think it shows you can follow directions...in fact IMHO sending more shows that you are committed to getting into grad school (especially if they are all research related). I think the schools say 3 because many people would go overboard and send 10 (one from their shrink, one from their mom, etc. etc.). It's hard to get good letters of rec, so by getting more than 3 shows something too!

 

[PsychEval]

As a guy who has made decisions on who gets an internship spot, I like folks who can follow directions. Do what you want.

 

[twiggers]

Lol psych...I'm of the opposite frame of mind in thinking that putting forth an extra effort shows a lot of initiative too 🙂