Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Several people on this site are saying they were rejected even though they had rec. letters from within the department. That seems like an enigma of why that should happen. Did anyone actually get an acceptance from having a letter from within the department they applied to? Maybe its a bad idea to use those inside references for some reason or does it actually work for most people and are we just seeing the aberrations?

I think it mostly depends on what exactly was written in those letters. Adn the weigh of their recommender within the dept, of course.