A little background... I attended a community college for 2 years, then transferred to Northwestern University where I studied mathematics. After spending seven years in the workforce, I am now planning to apply to graduate programs to study machine learning, and am looking back to see who I could ask for letters of recommendation.
During my years at Northwestern I lacked the foresight to forge any kind of relationships with my professors. However, while at the community college I made a strong connection with one of my math professors - in fact, taking the calculus course with him was the reason I decided to major in mathematics. I believe the community college professor would write me a strong, personalized letter of recommendation.
Which would I be better off with - an average letter of recommendation from one of my professors from Northwestern, or a strong letter from my community college professor?