Self-paced
I'm drafting my email to a professor I have a very good relationship with, and I'm planning to include my resume, transcript, and a "brag" sheet just reiterating some experiences I remember in my classes with her and TA-ing with her that I want to highlight. Do you recommend also including a "why law" bullet point or two? And, do you recommend highlighting specific things from my resume that I think are particularly important, or is that redundant/misleading in case the bullet points I include are all she focuses on? I wouldn't want to include too much in the "brag" sheet that she only focuses on what I selected, instead of writing honestly about what she appreciated about me. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks!
*I haven't started my personal statement so I won't be able to include that. But if there's anything else I'm missing, let me know!
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If we're just talking about the first email where you're requesting a letter of rec, I'd keep this message more basic. The goal of this email is just the request. So I would keep it to just that (eg, "Prof. Baska, I hope you're doing well and enjoying your summer. I wanted to reach out to you because I'm applying to law school next year and was hoping you'd be willing to write a letter of recommendation for me....."). I think it's good to make yourself open to a conversation where you can chat about your legal interests, why you want to do this, etc. You can also make the offer to provide a resume and all that. But leave this message basic. If you include all that other information right off the bat, it can come off either 1) a little presumptuous (ie, "I know you're going to say 'yes' so here's all the info you need!") or 2) just a bit much (we've all gotten those emails with - like - 10 different points and it can be a bit overwhelming).
I hope that helps!
@JacobBaska That makes lots of sense! Just to clarify, do you think it's a good idea in that second email/communication to include a resume, brag sheet (with some bullet points of my favorite experiences/activities with my professor), "why law" info, etc. ? Or is it better in your opinion to keep it vague/open and not provide too much guidance or additional information about me? I also don't necessarily know which specific type of law I want to go into, so I'm not sure how to navigate that either.
@shay_lsat Yup, the second communication can have those things! Ideally, the second communication is actually a conversation so that you can just talk this all out. However, if the prof responds to the initial email with a "yes, I'll do it! just let me know what you need!", then you can respond back with details regarding deadlines, your resume, maybe a paper from their class, and all that. You don't have to give them a Why Law spiel if they don't really ask for it because that's not relevant to what admissions officers want from an LoR. What we want is to understand what you bring to the classroom environment.
Personally, I recommend not including a resume, transcript, and brag sheet. You can do what you want, but I think adding those materials allows a professor to write a generic LOR rather than a stronger LOR which goes into deeper detail with your experience in that professor’s class(es). I would exclude those and rather offer to set up a meeting to discuss what you are looking for and what the professor is willing to write for you. They may ask for those materials anyway, but if you can avoid it I think you should likely be able to get a better LOR from what I have heard