Which Professor Should I Ask for A Letter of Rec?

[skiflutept]

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I posted something similar to this a couple of months ago, and I thought I made my decision but now I'm unsure...

I'm on the fence between 2 professors. I can't decide between the professor I had for A&PII or the professor I had for pre-PT seminar freshmen year.

I already asked my A&P professor and he said yes, but hasn't written anything since PTCAS isn't opened yet. I unfortunately got a B in the class, and had to really work my butt off for that B, but he did tell me that I'm one of the hardest working students he's ever had. I remember at a college admissions presentation when they were talking about who to ask for letters of rec, they said you don't always have to ask a teacher who's class you got an A in-it could still say a lot by getting a letter from a teacher who's class you didn't do great in, but still worked really hard in. I'm assuming this is the same for grad school. He's also the head of the biology department. I feel that a letter from him will either be a "generic" letter of rec or a really good one, which is partially why I'm unsure if he's the right person to ask.

The professor I had for pre-PT seminar is a PT and seems to really like me (she calls me Ms. Smartypants) and I'm doing an internship with her in the fall. The class I had her for was a 1 credit class that met once a week for an hour and we had to do one paper and a presentation so it was an easy A. I feel like she knows me outside of class better than my A&P professor does (she knows I'm on PTSA e-board, in band, etc) and I'm pretty confident that she would write a great letter for me.

I lean towards the A&P professor since his class was a challenging class that I really had to work hard in plus he's the head of the bio department and then I change my mind and say I should ask the PT professor because she knows me well and really likes me, and I'm 99% sure she will do a good job with my letter and then I change my mind again because I'm thinking that A&P is more of an academic class than pre-PT seminar I.

What do you think? Would it look weird to have a PT professor from a PT program that I'm already in, recommend me for another program? If I was 100% certain that my A&P professor's letter would be amazing, I wouldn't be hesitating, but I know that the PT professor's letter will good, but then again, the A&P professor's status is something to consider as well.

 

[Carson Ranger]

choose whoever is more likely to check the "highly recommend" box. "highly recommend" is essential. "recommend" (without "highly") can be an application killer.

 

[Macklelaur]

Some will disagree, but go with the letter that will support your application overall. It doesn't benefit you to have a letter from someone with a title or someone with a certain reputation if they can't write a very thorough reference letter for you. When you consider choosing someone to write your reference letter, you should consider what class it was if it is a professor, but PLEASE also consider how much they can say about your personality, how hard you work, your ability to communicate and so on and so forth. Does that help at all?

 

[A Homeless Guy]

It also helps imo how you ask the question of attaining a LOR, for example ask them "Hi, (name), would you be comfortable in writing me a strong letter of recommendation?" vs. just asking if they can write you a letter.

 

[SwampPT]

I posted something similar to this a couple of months ago, and I thought I made my decision but now I'm unsure...

I'm on the fence between 2 professors. I can't decide between the professor I had for A&PII or the professor I had for pre-PT seminar freshmen year.

I already asked my A&P professor and he said yes, but hasn't written anything since PTCAS isn't opened yet. I unfortunately got a B in the class, and had to really work my butt off for that B, but he did tell me that I'm one of the hardest working students he's ever had. I remember at a college admissions presentation when they were talking about who to ask for letters of rec, they said you don't always have to ask a teacher who's class you got an A in-it could still say a lot by getting a letter from a teacher who's class you didn't do great in, but still worked really hard in. I'm assuming this is the same for grad school. He's also the head of the biology department. I feel that a letter from him will either be a "generic" letter of rec or a really good one, which is partially why I'm unsure if he's the right person to ask.

The professor I had for pre-PT seminar is a PT and seems to really like me (she calls me Ms. Smartypants) and I'm doing an internship with her in the fall. The class I had her for was a 1 credit class that met once a week for an hour and we had to do one paper and a presentation so it was an easy A. I feel like she knows me outside of class better than my A&P professor does (she knows I'm on PTSA e-board, in band, etc) and I'm pretty confident that she would write a great letter for me.

I lean towards the A&P professor since his class was a challenging class that I really had to work hard in plus he's the head of the bio department and then I change my mind and say I should ask the PT professor because she knows me well and really likes me, and I'm 99% sure she will do a good job with my letter and then I change my mind again because I'm thinking that A&P is more of an academic class than pre-PT seminar I.

What do you think? Would it look weird to have a PT professor from a PT program that I'm already in, recommend me for another program? If I was 100% certain that my A&P professor's letter would be amazing, I wouldn't be hesitating, but I know that the PT professor's letter will good, but then again, the A&P professor's status is something to consider as well.

I'd use the A&P professor and use the other one as a PT reference since you're doing an internship with her and she's a PT. That way you get both🙂

 

[DesertPT]

I concur with the first piece of advice given. Talk to these people honestly and professionally, ponder the interactions you've had with them, and then do the very best you can to submit LORs with "highly recommend" checked for everything.

 

[skiflutept]

I already asked the A&P professor if he could write my LOR so that ship sailed. The PT professor offered to write my letter (I was chatting with her about PT school and she told me if I needed one, she would write one). I told her I had already asked someone and she said that if I change my mind, I should let her know. The program that I'm applying to wants one letter from an academic source and 2 from 2 PT's that you've completed observation hours with. My internship isn't observational. There's a transitional academy at my school for adolescents with physical and intellectual disabilities and 1 day a week, they work out at the university's sports center. I'm going to be a mentor for 2 students and help them work out (assist them with machines, possibly put a program together for them, motivate them, etc) and educate them about healthy lifestyles. So I don't think she will count as a PT reference.

Some will disagree, but go with the letter that will support your application overall. It doesn't benefit you to have a letter from someone with a title or someone with a certain reputation if they can't write a very thorough reference letter for you. When you consider choosing someone to write your reference letter, you should consider what class it was if it is a professor, but PLEASE also consider how much they can say about your personality, how hard you work, your ability to communicate and so on and so forth. Does that help at all?

When you say "consider what class it was", are you making the point that I should choose my A&P professor because that was more of an academic class?

 

[ptlover]

I already asked the A&P professor if he could write my LOR so that ship sailed. The PT professor offered to write my letter (I was chatting with her about PT school and she told me if I needed one, she would write one). I told her I had already asked someone and she said that if I change my mind, I should let her know. The program that I'm applying to wants one letter from an academic source and 2 from 2 PT's that you've completed observation hours with. My internship isn't observational. There's a transitional academy at my school for adolescents with physical and intellectual disabilities and 1 day a week, they work out at the university's sports center. I'm going to be a mentor for 2 students and help them work out (assist them with machines, possibly put a program together for them, motivate them, etc) and educate them about healthy lifestyles. So I don't think she will count as a PT reference.



When you say "consider what class it was", are you making the point that I should choose my A&P professor because that was more of an academic class?

I had 4 references if that helps. They were all very strong so I couldn't decide. Some schools did read all of them!

 

[1027453812]

Go with who you feel can identify with you outside of the teacher-student realm. A teacher who identifies with you on a level past that of a student will be able to provide a far more honest and genuine LOR.

To better illustrate this - Ill cite my LOR experience. For my professor I had sent a request to my Freshmen English Composition instructor. Although it was ~3-4 years since I was a student in her class, she was one of the very few professors that I was able to connect to personally. The mentor-mentee relationship extended outside of her classroom and it was through her work that I landed a job as a Supplemental Instruction (SI) leader within the English department. Quite surprisingly, I was one of the few non-english majors (I was a Kin exercise science major at the time) to be offered the position. It will be situations like these where you get to develop those relationships and extend it past the level of how well you performed in that individual class. I did not feel as strong to ask for LOR's from my instructors within my department because comparatively I had less 1 on 1 with them. Had I had more time to interact with some of the instructors I had during my senior year and I were to take time between graduation and applying to PTCAS, this situation would have been approached far differently.