<p>Hi guys,
I am a masters student at national university ranked between 50-100 in US News. I have cumulative GPA of 3.71. I have one and half year of research experience; a summer of research experience at a national laboratories related to the same field. The research I am doing for my masters thesis is directly related with the research they are doing at CMU. I have talked to a professor from CMU at one of the conferences and he told me he is interested in what I am doing for my masters. I know my masters advisors will definitely write a good recommendation. Do you think it is good idea to apply for Phd? Only thing I am worried is my GRE verbal, I have 800 in my GRE math but my verbal is bad. Also, I did little bad in the masters program my GPA for masters is 3.6 around that range but I finished my coursework in 2 semesters. I need some thought.</p>
<p>Go for it!</p>
<p>I saw that there is another thread that talks about getting letter of recommendation from. I was thinking of asking my supervisor who is a graduate of CMU to write the LoR. The professor I am planning to work with was also in my supervisor’s Phd committee and they know each other well. Do you guys think it is a good idea to ask non-professor to write LoR?</p>
<p>Generally it’s not a good idea to ask a non-professor to write a letter of recommendation. However, from the sound of it, your supervisor 1) has a PhD from Carnegie Mellon (and therefore knows what it takes to get through a PhD program, and can comment on whether you have those qualities), 2) works in research in some capacity and 3) worked with the person you want to work with at CMU. I’m also assuming that your work underneath him is related to the research you want to do at CMU. In this case, I think it’s an excellent idea to have him write you a recommendation letter.</p>
<p>What field are you in? A low verbal score won’t matter much if you are in a mathematical or physical/natural sciences field as long as it’s not abysmal (like sub-500). A 3.6 GPA in a master’s program is not bad; that’s good.</p>
<p>I think you should go ahead and apply if you are certain that you want to do a PhD.</p>
<p>Do you know if the CMU professor is on the admissions committee? If so, the letter will carry more weight. If not, then the letter may end up being more neutral than you expect. </p>
<p>If you have three professors who will write you recommendations, use this non-academic letter as a fourth. In general, it’s not a good idea to use a non-academic references, although I suspect it’s done more in engineering than in other fields; however, at least at CMU, this particular one may help you. The best thing that can happen via this individual is that he calls his mentor and tells him about you. Even if the mentor is not on the committee, he can tell his colleagues to be on the look-out for your application.</p>