Who to use for a reference letter?

[Potato!]

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Basically at this point, I'd appreciate people opinions/insight on this subject. I'm trying to decide on one of two people to use as my reference as my former supervisor. I did research in both their labs for an 8 month period. I'll lay it out for you:

Supervisor A: I know her better, because I was 2 years older when I worked with her (and somewhat more mature...still undergrad though). She thinks the world of me, and will write me a killer reference letter. Include a blurb about the paper we will be submitting for publication in the near future. She has her PhD, and is at the level of "Senior Scientist" in a biotech company.

Supervisor B: I still know her very well, but was younger when I worked with her (less mature, less knowledge about science in general and not quite as good at what I was doing...it was my first lab job. I still did fine and all, but didn't impress the crap out of her. Was still in undergrad). She will write me a pretty good reference letter, not killer, but pretty good. She has her PhD and was my supervisor while I was working at a biotech company. While she was working at the 'tech company, she was also an adjunct prof. of Surgery at my home town medical school. Within the last year, she has moved away and right now is between jobs. So now her title would be "Former Scientist II & adjuct prof of Surgery at ... college".

Who's reference would look better...especially to my home town medical school? Obviously this is a questions which is difficult for ya'll to answer given the limit insight I have vested upon you, but try if you can and help me out. Thanks!

ps. I've been drinkin' some wine tonight, so forgive me if I'm a little off my game 😉

 

[fever5]

ummm...maybe the wine is also impairing your judgement.

Familiarity of referees to the commitee, in my opinion, is secondary to the quality of the letter written about the candidate. Besides maybe some people at your local school didn't like her? Faculty tension? Maybe not, but it cannot be ruled out...so advantages of using a familiar reference is minimal...

Personally, I don't care about who writes the letter for me, as long as it "glows". Remeber these admissions people read through hundreds of letters. Do you know what its like to read hundreds of letters? Well as a lab demonstrator marking 60 lab reports in generally can be tedious! Can you imagine somone reading a 100 letters or more!? Goodness, if the letter doesn't stand out it might as well be tossed in the trash. If you have never marked/read 50 or more papers, trust me no matter how objective you try to be, boredom bests objectivity everytime.

Stay with the flow. Go for the glow.

 

[fever5]

By the way, what province are you from?

 

[dr.z]

I would go for supervisor A. You make it sound like she will write a better one.

 

[Potato!]

By the way, what province are you from?

I represent beautiful British Columbia. And yah, the wine may be imparing my judgement a wee bit, but it was a question that I was pondering long before j'ai bue ma premiere verre de vin ce soir.

 

[UCLAstudent]

I'd pick A, as well.

 

[PostalWookie]

Why not get both? Your committee letter will include the best elements of each one.

 

[jammin06]

on a separate note, i have been faced with a similar situation: i'm a junior, but i haven't taken many classes with the same professors, so i'm stuck with picking among a smaller crowd.

prof A: currently in his class right now, doing pretty well, gotten to know him outside of class on a more personal level, he only taught me for half the semsester (august-october, 7 weeks), but i have heard he writes good/great recs, oh, and he's the president of the biomedical engineering society of the US.

prof B: also currently in his class now, also doing well, through his connection, i'm gonna get to make a presentation on ''ethics in emergency medicine" for about 40 of the top people at the Texas medical center.



any ideas?

 

[Potato!]

Why not get both? Your committee letter will include the best elements of each one.

Most Canadian schools don't do committee letters. It would be nice if they did, this would make the whole process of amassing reference letters much easier for me. For some schools I'm applying to, I will use both supervisors as references; however for many schools, three references letters are asked for: 1 from a prof, 1 from a supervisor and 1 from someone in charge of volunteer work I'm involved with.