Letter of Recommendation - 4 years later?

TexasMade

Hello 7sagers,

My name is Alex, and I will hopefully being applying to law school next year. After my undergrad, I decided to take some time off the academics and work full time. I worked for almost 4 years. My question to the community is this, I would prefer having letters of recommendations written by my former professors instead of my former employers, but I don't think any of my professors could even pick me out of a line up. How should I handle the situation?

calcal101

Schools prefer to see letters from professors. Reach out to two or three whose classes you were particularly successful in (aka you got an A). Tell them what you’ve been up to, note that you look back fondly on their class, and start setting the stage for a request. It’ll be awkward obviously but this is part of professors’ jobs and 4 years isn’t THAT long. If you live close to the school, see if you can grab coffee (only works if you sort of knew them once, they’re nice, and you’re not a young man looking for coffee with a young female prof)

Osvaldo_Santiago

Hello TexasMade,

I agree with calcal101, but I'm in the same predicament as you. The only thing is that it's been 17 years since I did my undergrad. In fact is weird because 17 years ago I was only missing one semester to graduate and I I left school to follow my career and it wasn't until last December I decided to finish online the classes I was missing. I did what calcal101 suggested and to my surprise one professor did remember me and is in the process of writing a letter of recommendation for me. After much research and having attended a couple of meetings with Law schools recruiters it will be ok if you can get a a supervisor, a co worker, church leader or anyone that is around you that can attest to your abilities to do well in law school and if they are able to compare you with other people much better.
I also need to say you do need to pick someone that thinks highly of you or at least likes you (LOR 101). My second LOR will probably come from a manager I work with that can talk about my work ethics.
Im applying to Texas Tech this fall.

calcal101

@Osvaldo_Santiago said:
Hello TexasMade,

I agree with calcal101, but I'm in the same predicament as you. The only thing is that it's been 17 years since I did my undergrad. In fact is weird because 17 years ago I was only missing one semester to graduate and I I left school to follow my career and it wasn't until last December I decided to finish online the classes I was missing. I did what calcal101 suggested and to my surprise one professor did remember me and is in the process of writing a letter of recommendation for me. After much research and having attended a couple of meetings with Law schools recruiters it will be ok if you can get a a supervisor, a co worker, church leader or anyone that is around you that can attest to your abilities to do well in law school and if they are able to compare you with other people much better.
I also need to say you do need to pick someone that thinks highly of you or at least likes you (LOR 101). My second LOR will probably come from a manager I work with that can talk about my work ethics.
Im applying to Texas Tech this fall.

Hey @Osvaldo_Santiago ! Congrats on finishing your degree, and I'm glad your professor remembered you! I think it makes a lot of sense for you to have a professional LOR--17 years is quite a while, so your work experience will matter a lot in admissions. For a relatively recent grad (someone not even 30 yet, in all likelihood), I do think academic letters are particularly important. @TexasMade it is crucial that your LORs are (essentially absurdly) positive. If you can't be sure your manager would write a strong LOR, you can't use them. And you can't just not waive rights--that looks weird to the letter writer AND admissions committees. Reach out to your professors and relax--most are nice people (well, definitely choose nice ones to reach out to) and they'll likely be happy to help a former student who did well in class, even if you weren't the most memorable person on the planet

AudaciousRed

How many LoR's can you have? Can you have a number sitting with Lsac, and then pick from them which ones to apply to which school application?

10000019

@xadrianas6x said:
How many LoR's can you have? Can you have a number sitting with Lsac, and then pick from them which ones to apply to which school application?

Yes

hawaiihi

If you still have any work from any of the classes you did well in, send that to the professors as well! It may help them write a better letter or at least have something to go off of for you!

studyingandrestudying

If you can schedule a phone call and/or meet in person, that can help to reestablish communication. It's totally fine that a few years have gone by.

zanesbit

@lsatplaylist said:
If you can schedule a phone call and/or meet in person, that can help to reestablish communication. It's totally fine that a few years have gone by.

Yep, good suggestion. I have been out of undergrad and received a glowing recommendation letter from a former professor from 20 years ago. Were you in any academic clubs or a research assistant? Things like that help you "stick" in people's minds a bit more. Worse case scenario find a supervisor or volunteer coordinator or colleague that can speak to your strengths. No bad LORs.