Recommendation letter questions

Artorius

Hi everyone,

When we ask recommenders to write recommendation letter, is there anything specific we should remind them to include?

In other words, is there anything law school admission must see in a recommendation letter?

P.S. I am out of school for 7 years already, so one letter will be from my manager (who is also a part time college professor), and the other letter will be from a attorney/mentor I work with (who is also an alumni for my dream school).

Thanks!

Paul Caint

So a lot of schools' readers are actually professors or ex-professors. A lot of the time they read the letters of rec to understand what kind of student you are like inside of the classroom (hence why many schools stress having 2 academic letters of rec). Presuming you were good in the class of your recommender - participated, got good grades, etc - you should have them advocate for your ability to contribute to class discussions, enrich the education of others, etc. etc.

Artorius

@"Paul Caint" said:
So a lot of schools' readers are actually professors or ex-professors. A lot of the time they read the letters of rec to understand what kind of student you are like inside of the classroom (hence why many schools stress having 2 academic letters of rec). Presuming you were good in the class of your recommender - participated, got good grades, etc - you should have them advocate for your ability to contribute to class discussions, enrich the education of others, etc. etc.

Hi Paul, thanks for the comment.

You reminded me that I should explain I am out of school for 7 years, which I forgot to mention in my original post.

_oshun1_

Just send them your PS and your resume and they'll figure it out from there

akistotle

@Artorius said:
Hi everyone,

When we ask recommenders to write recommendation letter, is there anything specific we should remind them to include?

In other words, is there anything law school admission must see in a recommendation letter?

P.S. I am out of school for 7 years already, so one letter will be from my manager (who is also a part time college professor), and the other letter will be from a attorney/mentor I work with (who is also an alumni for my dream school).

Thanks!

This lesson covers this topic!:
https://7sage.com/admissions/lesson/rec-cheat-sheet/

westcoastbestcoast

Sending your Personal Statement and your Resume should be good enough. However, I would remind my recommenders to emphasize writing, critical thinking skills as well as attention to detail. If they can show that you are conscientious about your work as well as an effective communicator, you should be fine.

hawaiihi

The Yale admissions officer writes about how important it is to have two academic letters of reference, and how it can make or break your application. I know this may not be possible for you, so she also says:

"If you really don't have someone who can write a strong academic reference for you, the next best thing is to get a work reference that speaks to the kinds of things I mentioned above: writing, analytical ability, logical reasoning (those sound weirdly familiar from another part of your application...). The closer this is to the legal world, the better (e.g., a judge or lawyer), but other employers can give the same kinds of information."

And it's definitely a good reminder for those of us still in school or close to school to ask for letters of rec now, while we're still fresh in people's minds!

Here's where the admissions officer addresses someone asking about letters who's been out of school for many years, like you: https://law.yale.edu/admissions/jd-admissions/ask-asha/reference And here's her blog post about letters of reference in general: https://law.yale.edu/admissions/jd-admissions/ask-asha/bad-idea-jeans-biggest-mistake-you-can-make-your-yale-law-school-application (She notes this may be Yale-specific, but in many ways it's good advice for all schools)

Leah M B

I did some searching because I've also been out of school quite a while, so asked my supervisor to write a letter. I knew he wouldn't be familiar with this process, and I found this to use as a reference:
https://advising.utah.edu/preprofessional/_documents/prelaw/writing-a-law-school-recommendation.pdf

I also provided the information that @akistotle linked to above.