Can I change the referee once the letter of reference has been submitted? I am applying for a PhD position in US universities. I started an application for a specific university and suggested my referee names. My referees have already submitted their LORs. But I did not submit the application later. But they are in the application portal.
Now I want to submit an application for the next semester and I have a hunch that one of the letters was not that strong or impact my application in a negative way. So I want to change my referee. My question is- is it possible to change because she already submitted the letter.
Also, how important a referee is? I have a referee with whom I worked on one project and have good relations. On the other hand, there is someone with whom I have 3/4 publications but I have a doubt he will write something good (because he wants me to finish the remained projects first and does not want me to leave the lab right now).
The importance of letters of reference is covered in many other questions on this forum, and I won't discuss it here.
As for changing letters of reference: Most systems are set up to just take as many letters as are submitted. They will then all become visible to the selection committee. In other words, there is probably little you can do about the already submitted letter short of writing to the selection committee to disregard that one letter -- but that raises so many other questions that I don't see that as a winning strategy either.