<p>When you are writing your statement of purpose and mentioning professors at schools that you would like to work with, how specific do you have to be when you talk about why you want to work with them and things like that? I mean obviously, I am not an expert on their research areas and stuff, but my biggest fear is saying something wrong. Right now I am keeping it pretty general when I talk about their research interests and how my background overlaps with what their research areas are. </p>
<p>Another question I have is does the rank of the professors you ask for letters of recommendation matter? The professors I am going to ask are assistant professors, two are tenure track, and one isn’t (I guess he is more like a postdoc). Does that matter? Or as long as they are willing to write me strong letters will I be fine? I’ve worked one on one with all three of them.</p>
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Not very specific at all. Remember that most schools impose a word limit on the statement and that you should have at least two professors in mind when you apply - there just isn’t the room!! If you make the basic cut, the professors will actually contact you to feel you out, either by phone or in person, so that they can see how good a match you really are. </p>
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Of course it matters! Which would carry more weight, a letter stating you were the best physics student your community college adjunct physics professor had ever seen, or the same letter from Stephen Hawking? LOR’s are evaluations of your performance and potential relative to the experience of the author… which makes the author’s experience extremely relevant!</p>
<p>There is no diehard rule here - you have to benefit the weight of the letter (i.e. the experience and standing of the writer) against what they will say (i.e. “best student ever!” vs “Showed up, got A.”). If those are the best letters you can get, use them. If you can get similar letters from one or more tenured professors, that would be better! Avoid non-tenure track as much as possible, you really want letters from professors with grad students of their own, and adjunct or non-tenure faculty often don’t.</p>
<p>Addendum - you specifically mentioned rank, and I was more about experience. There are hot, well-known, up-and-coming young professors who can write better LOR’s than full professors who haven’t done anything meaningful in decades, so rank is not everything. Also, university politics may keep someone from a higher rank while their respect outside the university soars.</p>
<p>Well, I have done research with all 3 professors. I’ve only taken classes with one of them. So, their letters won’t be anything like showed up and got an A. Out of the two that I haven’t taken classes with, one is the non-tenure track, and the other is tenure track. The tenure track one has had grad students and advised a few phds. </p>
<p>I could get rid of the non-tenure track professor and ask someone else, but then I would only be left with professors who I’ve had classes with and not actually worked with.</p>
<p>Then it sounds like you have picked the right writers, for better or worse! It would have been a good idea, back when you were picking professors to work with, to pick one or more that had a more established reputation but that is water under the bridge. Go with what you’ve got!</p>
<p>None of the tenured professors I contacted wanted to work with me. I think a few of them don’t even do research anymore. This was the best I could do. One of the professors though, I think is a pretty big name, even though he is only an assistant professor. He has a lot of publications, and I think is starting to become an expert. He also collaborates closely with the really big names.</p>