LOR questions Forum

[chamomile90]

I am a few years out of college and am subsequently planning on having one academic reference and one professional reference for my LORs. However, I'm not completely sure if I'm planning on asking the right people. For my professional reference, is it ok if I ask someone who wasn't my manager as long as that person had a supervisory role over me? I worked in consulting and this person functioned as my lead on multiple projects. I'm concerned because he was technically only one position above me (e.g. an associate vs my analyst position) and not very senior. My other option would be to ask a project manager I worked closely with, who does hold a more senior position, but I know I would receive a much stronger letter from my lead because of the number of projects we worked on together and our similar work ethic. Positions aside, both were people I directly reported to and worked under. I've read that positions and titles don't really matter as long as you can get a strong letter, but I'm worried that this might be a little too close to the line? How is the position of the recommender displayed to admissions?

For my academic reference, I am considering asking an English professor I had during my junior year. I majored in economics and am wondering if this will seem too random to admissions. The English class was on 18th century novels. It was a small and intimate class that I really enjoyed and I figure it's still relevant as it's English and dealt with writing and research. I just don't have any professors from any of my significant econ classes that I would really want to ask. Big class, no relationship, etc...

Any input would be great, thanks.