Letter of rec from top physicists

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CyberShot
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Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 5:43 pm

Letter of rec from top physicists

Post by CyberShot » Wed Jun 30, 2010 9:00 pm

Just curious, but how much would schools care if the likes of Ed Witten, Juan Maldacena, or Gell-Mann were to write a very charming letter of recommendation for someone that's applying to a PhD program?


Would it be the equivalent of adding about .3 to your GPA?

I'm very interested in the answer.

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grae313
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Re: Letter of rec from top physicists

Post by grae313 » Thu Jul 01, 2010 1:28 pm

CyberShot wrote:Would it be the equivalent of adding about .3 to your GPA?
You can't exchange things around like that; there's no application currency, and even if there was it would depend greatly on the school.

Letters carry more weight when the reputability and opinion of the writer is known and respected. I'd say it's a good to huge boost depending on the school.

coffeecoffeecoffee
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Re: Letter of rec from top physicists

Post by coffeecoffeecoffee » Mon Aug 09, 2010 12:23 pm

CyberShot wrote:Just curious, but how much would schools care if the likes of Ed Witten, Juan Maldacena, or Gell-Mann were to write a very charming letter of recommendation for someone that's applying to a PhD program?


Would it be the equivalent of adding about .3 to your GPA?

I'm very interested in the answer.
If the letter has some substance, then it will carry a lot of weight. By substance, I mean: does the recommender know you as a researcher? If the letter is just "She/He took a class with me and passed", then it will not help you.

--

How to Get Into Grad School, tips from a current Ph.D. student



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