Professional Rec Letters/What Counts as Academic?

catsforever

Two questions in this one:

1. I know that professional letters are acceptable as long as you've been out of school for some time. I graduated in 2015 and have been working at a large, well-known company since then. I think that my manager could provide a strong rec letter accounting for my time since graduation. I have one strong academic reference, but the other professors I plan on asking for rec letters don't know me as well as my manager does. Given my situation, what would carry more weight for a law school---a strong second letter from a manager or a second letter from a professor whose class I did well/participated in, but who doesn't know me as well?

2. I was a TA for a semester in college, but being a TA was technically counted as a class. I had to learn all of the material that I was teaching on top of participating in weekly meetings with the course professor and the other TA's. In these meetings, we learned how to teach classes made sure we understood the material for the week. We were also graded. If I ask this professor for a reference, would it count as academic?

Alex

1. If possible, I would try for 2 academic LORs. They will likely hold more weight since you haven't been out of school that long.

2. Yes, if you were graded by a professor it will count as academic.

catsforever

Thanks, Alex! That's really helpful.

samantha.ashley92

Many schools will allow you to submit more than two LORs. I would say to get a second academic one, along with one from your manager. As long as your manager can speak to your ability to learn, willingness to work hard, and capacity to succeed, I can't see how it would hurt.

catsforever

Thanks Samantha! That's exactly what I decided to do. Two academic and one from my manager.

studyingandrestudying

As you likely know already but maybe it'll help someone else, generally speaking, academic means they had you for a class, you know each other because you were in class together, and the class was in a college or university.

catsforever

@lsatplaylist Yes, agreed, but what I really meant was whether admissions councils would take a recommendation from that sort of class as seriously as one from a more traditional class.

studyingandrestudying

Yes, they'll be happy with it. Sorry--read the thread fast.