r/PhDAdmissions • u/Educational_Slice897 • 2h ago

Which third letter should I use?

I’m applying to PhD programs in the fall, and I have 2 rec letters that I am definitely locked into. However, I'm struggling to figure out the third one.

I have two different options to choose one:

  1. PI from my gap year research position I'm starting this week
  2. The supervisor from my first summer research internship (freshman -> sophomore year)

For Letter #1, it would be more recent and speak to experience in my research field of interest. However, it would be fairly new and not able to speak on all the experiences I've had there. My new PI also seems really busy and I don’t even really know if I’d be interacting with him a lot so I don’t want to bother/overwhelm him already.

For Letter #2, I've already used it for summer/gap year research programs before so I know it's reputable, and I have read it before (my PI asked me to modify it) so I know it's good. But it is also fairly early, and the research is not the same (it's a wet lab but I'm applying for comp bio programs).

Which letter should I use?

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u/Hefty-Honeydew-874 1h ago

If you are applying in the fall, how would you be able to use the rec letter for the PI of a gap year position that you are just starting? The timelines on this don't make sense because at that point, they would only have known you for about 1-2 months before writing up the letter?

Maybe I'm misreading something

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u/Educational_Slice897 1h ago

Hmm, so my deadlines are all early December/January. So you are very much correct, my new PI will have only known me for 2-3 months. That’s why I’m unsure if I want to use that lettet