3rd Letter of Recommendation Advice

[JonesUCF]

Hello all. I'm applying to MFE programs for Fall 2016, and currently working on applications. I currently have two LORs lined up:

• One from my Linear Algebra professor, whose course I took last semester. Professor doesn't know me too well, but I think enough to give more than the super-generic LOR.
• One from current Probability Random Processes professor. I'm more confident about this one as I'm doing very well in his class, he knows me pretty well as I visit his office hours regularly, and he's going to be the professor for my financial math class next semester.

I'm really unsure who to ask for my third and was hoping I could get some advice on the issue. I basically could go two ways on this:

1. Get a really generic "he excelled in my class" letter from a professor. I could get a letter like this from a recent econometrics professor, computer science professor, or from a professor I took both Stat Theory I and II with. If I go this route, I would lean towards the professor that I took Stat Theory I-II with since he would have an extra semester worth to attest for my quantitative ability. However, I feel the LOR could overlap with that from my Probability professor.
2. Get a more personal letter from a professor who hasn't had me as a student. I've worked at the Math Lab at my university as a tutor for the past 4 semesters, and this professor oversees the Lab and he is the one who hired me. We see each other daily and by far knows me the best out of anyone at my university. Also, this semester he became the undergraduate advisor for mathematics majors, including myself. However, the cons are that he doesn't have firsthand knowledge of my quantitative ability outside of watching me tutor students for classes up to Calc III, Diff Eq, and Linear Algebra. Also, I'm not sure how much weight his LOR would carry, as his official title (I don't know how titles really work at a university) is only "Associate Instructor."

Since my first two letters will attest for my quantitative ability, I think the second option would benefit me more as I would have a letter that could attest for my personal qualities. If anyone has any advice, it would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[Varun Dubey]

Second options looks better.