awkward LOR situation

[hedgequant]

One of the weaknesses to my profile 2 years ago was that I had raving LORs from 2 professors (one with a PhD) and an industry contact. I understand that these had little/no weight with ad coms.

So far, I have updated 2 of my letters to Stats PhDs, one of whom I took Math Stats (grad level) from and the other I am working directly with on Probability and Measure Theory. The latter is very well published in math and probability journals.

Here is the awkward situation: For income I work with high school and college students in math/sciences, and one of the families I work for is a very well-known family. Without trying to give too much away, the patriarch is a US Senator and his wife is the namesake of a top 40 business school. I did not approach them about writing a letter for me, but they offered to do so. I can't turn this down, but I wonder if I should just have them try to focus on the more "elusive" qualities (dedication, character, etc.) since they obviously cannot comment on my research abilities

On one hand, it seems that a 3rd professor would add little unique information, but on the other hand I do not want this to come across like I just tried to find the most "famous" person I knew/was family friends with- again, I work for them and they have all but insisted that they help.

Is this a high class "problem", or should I try and find a way to separate their letter from the typical 3 LORs?

[possible_phd]

I don't really see that third letter being very persuasive except maybe at the namesake school. Even there I think the better route would be to have her mention you to the Dean rather than have it be a part of your application. But I don't know; just going with my gut here.

[rsaylors]

I don't really see that third letter being very persuasive except maybe at the namesake school. Even there I think the better route would be to have her mention you to the Dean rather than have it be a part of your application. But I don't know; just going with my gut here.

This.

A personal letter to the Ph.D. director recommending you, done outside of your regular LORs, which should all be done by Ph.D.s.