Letter of Rec from PhD student

[jacobmatthews285]

I recently did an REU at a research institute in the summer, but the REU project was supervised by a PhD student primarily. They are the ones who can most speak to my research ability. I was told by a committee of professors, present to take questions about grad school, that it would be fine to get letters of recommendation from PhD students supervising the project, but another professor I talked with told me such letters were worthless.

Help would be appreciated. What should I do?

[AbelianCat]

The conventional wisdom is that they are useless because
1) a PhD student is not a good judge of whether someone will be successful in a PhD program
2) the admissions committee is less likely to know who they are

[wihjenfc]

It is true that letters by PhD students art not convincing enough, unfortunately. Try to have professors or postdocs write you a letter if possible.

[jacobmatthews285]

(For more info, I’m applying to masters, but I expect similar answers)