The Page Rank effect of Academic recommendations for Graduate School I am an undergraduate who comes from a relatively small department, with moderate research activities being done around. We don’t have any research lab or dedicated research personnels in my field of interest at our school. I have developed an interest on my own regarding the topic and I’ve been working on it for the past one and half years. I have 2 publications and 3 more working papers , and I am pretty sure that I want to pursue this topic going ahead for graduate school. An essential component of graduate school application is Letters of Recommendations. I have learnt from many research groups homepage and some of my friends from natural sciences department that If I want to work with professors who are the leaders in research of  ‘XYZ’ , only the Professor who have made significant contributions in the field ‘XYZ’ or who is a collaborator of the potential advisor have a strong case on the letter of recommendation. I have been supervised by two different professors, who are very much unrelated to the field( as I’d discovered my interest on my own ). I have demonstrated research and other parts of applications to back me up , but I’m worried if Letters of Recommendations not coming from the same ‘XYZ’ area Professor will not help my case. Is the Page-Rank type effect which I fear really true in academia ?
I’m worried if Letters of Recommendations not coming from the same ‘XYZ’ area Professor will not help my case.


While a letter from someone who is an expert in the subject of your doctoral research is better, it's much more important that the letter writer know about your research record.

Sensible graduate admissions committees know that not all universities have faculty in every research area.  They care more about what the letter says than who wrote it.