LOR advice

calexa123

I graduated in 2019 and have worked for the past year in Finance. I was able to get a letter from my current work manager. I understand having an academic letter is important. Over the past month, I have emailed ~10 professors whose classes I have done well in, as well as a few career and pre-law advisors. I have only received 1 response and they said they were too busy and now was not a good time. What should I do? I was hoping to apply before Thanksgiving, but that is looking less likely. I can get another letter from a previous internship supervisor, but that would leave me with 0 academic letters. Should I apply with 2 professional letters and apply earlier, or delay applying and hold out (hopefully) for an academic letter?

noonawoon

You could always reach out to your previous internship supervisor and have that letter as backup while you wait for a professor to send a letter. I have heard that it can seem like a red flag for a recent grad to have 0 academic references. How much it impacts your application probably largely depends on where you are applying, what your stats are in relation to the medians, your softs, etc.

Ellegoals

Definitely reach out to everyone again, but I believe if no-one else, someone in your schools career services office should be able to write a LOR for you.

cat.casa

I thought about doing the same thing, but then I remember seeing some schools actually required at least one academic letter.

calexa123

Would it be ill-advised to write an addendum explaining my lack of academic letters, should I decide to only submit professional letters?

noonawoon

@calexa123 Yes this addendum would probably be ill-advised. What would you put in an addendum?