Who to ask for letter of recommendation?

[Dgtsx]

I am applying for MFE programs this year. I have two good recommendation letters and looking for a third from an academic source. Now I am facing this dilemma.

Basically, I can ask my probability theory teacher that does not know me very well (its a big lecture class) or I can ask a professor who knows me but taught me basic algebra which I am afraid that it won't be relevant to financial engineering (you know, Galois theory and such though it has some linear algebra in it but still theoretical not applied in any way).

Thank you in advance!

 

[MRoss]

Your algebra teacher.

A recommendation later should not list your accomplishments, that is what your resume is for. You recommendors (word?) should know you well enough that they can provide genuine sincerer praises about your determination, teamwork, and overall quality as a person.

This:

"John preformed well in my advanced measure theory class. He scored above average on both the midterm and final exams."

doesn't come close to this:

"John consistently offered hours of his time to help his classmates prepare for the algebra midterm and final exams. I always felt he was ahead of the class but nevertheless excited to participate in any way possible. He was a pleasure to have as a student."

 

[penny ante]

Wait. Some school however says "Avoid writers who do not have first hand knowledge of your technical abilities including instructors in low level or nontechnical classes such as calculus, literature, accounting, etc." So, your linear algebra must be fitting the avoid list.
Admission office usually does not really care how close you and a professor are if the letter has what it has to show.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

In the QuantNet Guide, there are a couple of articles from admission people telling you exactly how to deal with this.
quantnet.com/guide

 

[ewert]

What do you think, is it better to have a recommendation from assistant, who was teaching my econometrics seminar (therefore knows me) and has some publications in quantitative finance field, but he will finish his phD in a year, or is it better to find some professor?

I think that in my country the relationship between teacher and students is usually not as close as in US or UK. :/

 

[Jose T]

Wait. Some school however says "Avoid writers who do not have first hand knowledge of your technical abilities including instructors in low level or nontechnical classes such as calculus, literature, accounting, etc." So, your linear algebra must be fitting the avoid list.
Admission office usually does not really care how close you and a professor are if the letter has what it has to show.

I really don't think a class on Galois theory fits into the 'low-level or nontechnical' category. It goes to your academic performance in a math class which is, I would think, exactly what they want. No one is sitting and saying 'why didn't he get a recommendation for this particular topic' ; they just don't want something from a course that was trivial or completely unrelated (unrelated in the sense of a literature class, not unrelated in the sense of a course from a different branch of mathematics). Although, fwiw, I actually did use an English lit professor as one of my recommendation letters.

 

[ewert]

Do you think it is ok to ask my financial economics lecturer for recommendation, even though she has not yet finished her phD?

 

[Jose T]

Do you think it is ok to ask my financial economics lecturer for recommendation, even though she has not yet finished her phD?

I would avoid doing that if possible. The recommender's reputation matters and ideally you should have professors (not adjuncts, TAs, post-docs, etc).

If you don't have another option, I don't think it's a huge sin to do that though. One of my other recommenders was my old boss at a pharmaceutical who had a (non-Finance) MBA and an undergrad in the life sciences (he was a highly placed at my old firm though).