Is this considered an Academic or a Professional LOR? Forum

[dardardelight]

So here's the deal-- I plan to submit only 2 LOR's for my app. One of them is from a professor, the other is from the program director of a think tank that I've interned for this summer. The gig is really academically/research oriented, and I'd totally be able to receive a rec that gives insight into my writing/editing skills, ability to communicate effectively, my foreign language abilities (non-native Chinese speaker), and my general knowledge of the topic of the program we work in (Chinese environmental/energy issues)

Do you think the adcomms will view this as academic, even though it's not written by a "professor." The person has still has a P.h.D, and views me as a student who she mentors. I'm just worried that having 2 LOR's, one of which isn't from a professor would hurt my app.

Please respond if you have any insight into this ! : )

[oshberg28]

How it is viewed really doesn't matter in this case since you have one academic already - if it's a good LOR, use it. It's really a professional LOR, but having one academic and one professional won't hurt you.

[jerseymike]

This is fine everywhere but yale. Yale strongly prefers two professors (or TAs if needed).

[ms9]

This is fine everywhere but yale. Yale strongly prefers two professors (or TAs if needed).

It's professional. You should have another academic on ready (what was the line from Top Gun, "Maverick you are on Alert 1" ?) so, have one on Alert 1 for schools like Yale.

[kartelite]

I think people over-estimate the necessity of having a former professor write a recommendation - it sounds like your supervisor would be able to provide a de facto academic recommendation, and with your other letter you should be set. I didn't have any professors or people who had supervised my research/scholarship, just a former manager and a professional acquaintance, and my cycle turned out about as expected (only real surprise was ding from Berkeley, so maybe they care about that, who knows).

[Tiago Splitter]

I think people over-estimate the necessity of having a former professor write a recommendation - it sounds like your supervisor would be able to provide a de facto academic recommendation, and with your other letter you should be set. I didn't have any professors or people who had supervised my research/scholarship, just a former manager and a professional acquaintance, and my cycle turned out about as expected (only real surprise was ding from Berkeley, so maybe they care about that, who knows).

Well sure, if you don't count Yale and Stanford, the two schools where LOR's are arguably the most important. We'll never know why you didn't get into either of those two, but with your strong profile the lack of an academic LOR probably mattered some.

[dardardelight]

Hi guys, thanks for the responses!

I'm really just targeting T4-T14, so HYS emphasis on LOR's does not influence my decision. I think the route I'm going to take is-- use just these two LOR's for my app (which will probably be an ED app somewhere), and ask for a third one in case I get waitlisted at multiple schools. By December, I'll be finished with my last semester of grad school, and will most likely have a professor who still has me fresh in his/her mind write me an (additional) recommendation to send to schools.

Hopefully it'll all work out.. any other thoughts?