Who counts as an academic recommender?

Pride Only Hurts

As of now I have two LORs. One from one of my favorite professors and another from a Dean who mentored me throughout undergrad. Does the letter from the Dean in this case count as an Academic LOR?

Kermit750

I believe when schools request an academic LOR, they want someone who can speak to your academic abilities. If you've taken classes with the Dean, then that would be fine.

MissChanandler

I think if your Dean taught a class that you took or was your advisor for some sort of academic project/paper, then that would be fine. The fact that the Dean is in academia isn't enough to make it an academic letter though, because as the commenter above said, they want someone who can speak to your academic abilities. I think that anyone who has ever graded your work in college is fine (Professor, TA, etc.). If your Dean doesn't fit into this category, I would try to find a different person who does.

MissChanandler

I think if you had two professors and wanted to use the dean as a third non academic letter, that would be okay too.

LegallyConfused180

help Hi also have the same question here. I got my BA internationally 9 years ago. I have since moved here and do not have any communication with my previous professors. What do you think is the best thing to do here?

Admin note: edited to remove #

MissChanandler

@CeeCarino although it is strongly preferred to have at least one academic letter, if you have no way of contacting your former professors/they won't remember you at all, then it's okay to have recommendations from other people such as employers/supervisors. If you have to go the latter route, I would try to pick someone who can still speak to "scholarly" type abilities, such as writing quality or something like that. Law schools understand that people who have been out of school for a long time aren't going to have as close of relationships as those who are fresh out of undergrad, so I wouldn't let it stress you out too much.

Pride Only Hurts

Sweet, I was going to ask another professor for an LOR but I wasn't positive if it was necessary. Thanks guys!

Leah M B

@CeeCarino Since your bachelor's was so long ago, most schools won't expect you to have an academic letter. If you could get one, it'd be nice. But otherwise, you should try to get LORs from supervisors that you have worked under. Someone who knows your work well. Ideally, someone that could speak to the things that law schools want from academic LORs as well: writing ability, work ethic, etc.

@"Pride Only Hurts" Yes, agreed with the others. The Dean wouldn't necessarily count as an academic reference unless they could speak to your abilities as a student somehow, like if you took a class from them. It'd still be a good reference though, I might use that one as a third letter to send, or an alternate if it somehow makes more sense to use for a specific school. But ideally yes, you should get one more from a professor that can speak specifically to your abilities as a student.

LivingThatLSATdream

@"Pride Only Hurts" I just attended the Harvard webinar and it was stated that anyone in the academic field that could attest to your academic ability IS considered an "academic recommendation". Some examples they mentioned, if you did research with a professor, had a thesis adviser, even if they didn't teach a course you took, if there was a professor who taught in the field you were interested in and you had a work/research/mentor/etc relationship with them, those would all count as "academic".

I think the question comes down to, can the dean attest to your academic abilities, does he/she know you well, can he/she speak about your school accomplishments? So if the dean can talk about your academic successes, for example s/he read your papers, sat in to watch your class presentations, was on your thesis defense, knows about your involvement on campus, etc. then YES the dean is a academic recommendation. But if none of those were the case or anything similar, than probably not.

So the real answer, as with most things in this law school admissions process, is "it depends".