Recommended from different faculties/departments

[samil]

Hey everyone! Haven't seen a discussion on this, so here goes.

Does anyone have insights on the importance of having letter of recommendation writers from the same department you're applying to? I know that the conventional wisdom on these forums is that it's the content of the letters that's most important, but I'm wondering if there is such a preference holding content constant.

For example, if someone is applying to an accounting phd, would a letter of recommendation from say a strategy or statistics prof somehow be given a lower weightage than one from an accounting prof, ceteris paribus? And what if said strategy or statistics prof actually knows the applicant's work better than the accounting prof?

Thanks. I know that a lot of these discussions really involve a lot of guesswork or at best extrapolation from limited data given that the vast majority of people on these forums are not on adcoms, but some discussion's usually a good thing.

[taxPhD]

I do not think there is a problem with having a letter from a professor in another department. However, if all three of your recommendation letters are from outside the discipline that you are applying, then that is probably not a good thing.

Overall, the content of the letter is the most important. It is crucial to find letter writers that actually know you, and can speak to your ability to overcome the rigors of a PhD.

[hedgequant]

I'm largely clueless but take something like Finance where many people have degrees (both UG and graduate) in stats, engineering, math, etc. I can't imagine a passing rec from a finance person would carry the weight as someone's committee chair in math, stats, etc.

[rsaylors]

You want someone that can speak to your ability to be a researcher in your field. HedgeQuant offered a great example of how a letter of recommendation can come from a department outside of finance and still be much stronger than from someone in finance. As a general rule, though, you'll find that those in the field can best speak to your abilities as a researcher in that field; though there are many times when this may not hold.