Non-Academic Letters of Recommendation

CPAtoJD

Hi Everyone,

I've been out of school for about 5 years now. I graduated with a BS + MS in Accounting and have completed the CPA examination. After college I worked for a large public accounting firm in a pretty selective practice group doing financial advisory for some of the largest investment banks in the world. I developed a great relationship with one of the Partners in that group and he will be one of my letter of recommendation writers.

I do know, however, that there is a preference many schools have for academic letters of recommendation. I've received two of those as well, one from a finance professor I TA'd for and another from my University's business school dean.

Originally my plan was to use all 3 letter of recommendation. However, I've noticed that some schools actually restrict you to just using two letters. So my question is, which two should I use? Is the preference for academic letters so great that it would be detrimental to use the letter from my professional recommender? I felt that given the experience I had the professional letter would help set me apart a bit. But now that for some applications I may have to choose just two letters I'm not sure if I should use the two academic or use the professional one with one academic?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

LSAT_Wrecker

I would ask the admissions staff at each school their opinion.

My n=1, I'm over 20 years removed from my UG studies and over 7 years away from my master's studies, so I'm using one academic and one professional reference (who I've had a relationship with for over 10 years). I see value in including a view from my professional life. A contributing factor in my own calculus is that my second academic LOR writer has kept me waiting for over 4 months (and counting).

Leah M B

That's a tough call. I think I'd lean toward using both academic if you think they'll be strong. If there's a chance one of them wouldn't be as strong, it'd probably be better to use the professional one. It wouldn't hurt to call admissions and ask if they have a recommendation. 5 years out of undergrad isn't a whole lot to where it's obvious that using a professional letter is fine. I'd maybe lean toward using your 2 academic first and then the third is professional if you need it.

samantha.ashley92

I have read on some schools' websites that you shouldn't use academic references if you have been out of school for more than 5 years. It might have been 5 or more years. Either way, I would suggest looking at each school's requirements/recommendations-- even if you have to call them and ask about it.

CPAtoJD

Thank you everyone!

JustDoIt

I would use one professional and one academic on the schools that limit them. Most schools require at least one academic LOR. And if you are out for more than two or three years, you need at least one professional LOR. Doing one of each would cover all your bases.