So, here goes:

I graduated a little over 6 years ago and when I think about professors I could get strong LORs from, only one really comes to mind, the professor whom I did my senior thesis under. I had a good working relationship with this professor and ended up producing a pretty good thesis, however I did complete the work late and thus was marked down a grade.

As for professional references, I volunteered at a district court clerk's office and I've been working in the field of legal advocacy assisting victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, etc for the last 3 years, which included working at a city prosecutor's office for a year and a community based agency for the last 2 years doing more civil work. During that time through the work I've done on various task forces, community groups, and just generally collaborating and networking with our community partners, I've gained a lot of potential professional LOR possibilities from attorneys, prosecutors, agency directors, clerks, a chief of police, etc.

So I guess my point is, I've seen a lot of people saying education LORs are everything and professional LORs barely count for anything. My problem is that I have a lot more opportunity on the professional side.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Am I totally screwed if I can't pad my application with outstanding undergrad LORs?

So I did a program called running start in high school and took some college level classes, starting in Fall of 2004. I started with just one class that quarter. I graduated HS in spring 06 with 55 college credits completed. I proceeded to take a few more classes including some lower level math classes I needed, but then took some time off Winter 07 to get my pilot's license. I returned to school in Fall 08 working full time and going to school part time and finally graduated in Spring 09. So what this means is I have to list my Comm College years of attendance as 04 - 09. On paper it looks like it took me 5 years to get a 2 year degree! In a way, it did, but it wasn't as if I graduated high school and went to school immediately after. It was a long winding path including a break to get my pilot's license which was a career I thought I might want to get in to at the time. I didn't have the slightest inkling back then of wanting to go to graduate school...now I'm realizing it is making my resume look really bad.

So I guess my question is, does anyone have any thoughts on how I can make it look less terrible on my resume? They're going to get a transcript so leaving it off completely seems like I'm trying to be deceptive. Will the adcom think this is super unusual? Any guidance is appreciated.

I used to work with an attorney who agreed to write an LOR for me. We weren't employed at the same agency but did a lot of work together and served on some of the same committees. She left her position not to long ago to serve as an assistant director at one of the schools I'm applying to, so she wrote the letter for me on the school's letterhead.

I also asked for my last two supervisors to write me letters, which they both agreed but haven't submitted yet, which as you might imagine is causing me some anxiety. I had planned to submit my academic LOR and the attorney's LOR to this one particular school, but I'm wonder what the community thinks? Does it seem like it'll matter that one of their own staff wrote me the letter (and I believe it's a pretty decent letter)? Or would they prefer to hear from my actual employer instead?

Thanks!

I've read a lot of advice online - people saying that the best time to negotiate is right after the seat deposit deadline. Problem is I'm between two schools and one of them has a $500 non-refundable, which is pretty steep for me. Is it worth it to try a week or two before the deadline?

First off, I love 7sage for helping me achieve a decent LSAT score and also the admissions site was extremely helpful as well. The only thing I think is glaringly missing from the admissions curriculum is a section on negotiating scholarships. I imagine there are A LOT of accepted students out there in the same boat as me - comparable scholarships from a few comparable schools trying to decide where to attend, with one of the biggest priorities being who will give me the most money? There is some good info out there on the interwebs about it but I would definitely love to see a well-vetted 7sage take.

All that said, I'm wondering if anyone with experience negotiating can answer this for me:

What is the best way to contact admissions to ask about negotiating a scholarship? By email? By letter attached to an email? By snail mail?

Any other advice would be appreciated too. As seat deposits start to come in and others start to withdraw, it'll be negotiating time soon (rubs hands together)

Thanks!