Letter of Reference

kryptonsa36
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:53:57 +0000

ilikedrit:

I’ve researched all of the professors I’ve taken, and none of them have any connections with any of the professors at the schools I am applying to.

What makes you think the connections are that obvious? When I was discussed schools with two of my letter writers, they both told me to feel free to run faculty names by them, as they “know almost everyone there.”



ilikedrit:

Graduate students are only a step away from a professor, have gone through enough of the same work that professors do, and certainly can have sufficient insight on whether one has what it takes to succeed in graduate school.

Except that step might as well be a mile high. There are certainly graduate students who are professor-level prolific and destined to become renowned in their fields, but how can you expect graduate admissions committee members to know that your letter writer is one of them? As far as they are concerned, your graduate student letter writer could be kicked out of his/her graduate program tomorrow for sheer ineptitude - how can graduate schools approach an LOR from a graduate student with anything but extreme reservation?