Thoughts on Balancing the LOR Situation

profile427

Hi All,

I recently reached out to an undergrad professor, with whom I had the closest relationship due to completing a scholarly research project my senior year. Here's the response:

"I could only write a very short letter stating that you were an outstanding undergraduate student who took courses from me more than seven years ago at a former university. I will not be able to speak to anything having to do with xxx law. "

I was bracing myself for the response. It's actually a little better than I initially expected, but...doesn't sound like it will help much?

I'm starting to think that it would be better to reach out to a grad prof, even though Admissions doesn't seem to think that grad school amounts to much? Otherwise, I might have to jump ship altogether and ask a previous supervisor in my industry. Two of the schools to which I'm applying do accept employer letters for non-traditional students. Do you think that this may be the "safer" route?

Any thoughts on the situation? I'm honestly not even sure how to respond to the person I quoted above. Thanks for taking the time to respond, but no thanks?

RaeD4512

A bad, or 'so-so' LOR is worse than no LOR. I would contact the schools you are applying to and explain your situation if their status-quo is strictly two academic LORs from undergrad. If you have the option of getting a great LOR from a previous supervisor go with that for sure! You want your LORs to be a huge asset to your application.

I have a short story from a law school admissions representative who told me about an applicant who interned for a senator, but did not know him/her personally. This senator wrote the applicant a LOR that went along the lines of 'So-so is an excellent candidate and would do well in law school'. I'm sure the applicant was thinking, 'Wow, this person is sort of prestigious and can totally help get me into my top schools'. This idea totally back fired. No matter who the person is, if they don't put effort into writing your LOR they have no business writing it in the first place. Although your former professor's response sounds snarky its good that he's being honest with you because you don't want to hurt your application unintentionally.

I hope this helps and good luck!

Pacifico

Get the grad school prof LORs if they will be excellent. You're falsely conflating grad GPA not being as important as uGPA with adcoms not respecting grad school. This is not remotely the case.

Don't take the LOR form the UG prof. Reach out to your grad profs and ask them and if they are enthusiastic then get those. Failing that then go for the employer recs.

Also, despite why they may say, all schools will take LORs from employers because they respect the fact that not everyone gets up close and personal with profs or is K-JD. Always get the best LORs that you can regardless of the source. Just know that not having any academic ones may be a red flag and may hurt you a little bit. As long as the LORs are awesome it should mitigate this though.

For a non-traditional student the best mix is usually two academic LORs and one employer/supervisor LOR, but of course that is for schools that accept more than two. In any event, if you get more than three awesome ones, save the extra ones for WL help.

profile427

Thanks, guys! I'm working on requesting the LOR from a previous grad prof --- who unfortunately also moved on from the uni to another less prestigious uni. But hopefully there will be a bit more excitement in response to my humble request, this time around...

Pacifico

Prestige and shit like that does not matter at all. You just want enthusiastic people who are not total morons so that you don't get a letter that is riddled with grammatical errors and stuff like that because that shows poor judgment on your part. That's why I could never use a lot of supervisors I had in the Army since they wrote at about a sixth grade level. Some schools might say it doesn't matter but just reading that shit is embarrassing so I don't see how it couldn't hurt you when it's really over the top.

shainabarber

I know that graduate work and GPA are not heavily weighted in the admissions process, but I don't think that a grad prof vs ugrad prof matters - as long as that prof can speak to your academic ability and likelihood of success in law school. I graduated from Undergrad 6 years ago, thus I asked a grad prof to write for me. He wrote an amazing letter that I believe will be difficult to ignore.

Just because ugrad GPA is used over grad work, doesn't mean a grad prof LOR isn't preferred.

My current boss could and probably would write me a really awesome letter, but I'm not willing to risk my standing at my job, just in case law school doesn't work out (for whatever reason). Once I put it it there that I'm even thinking about leaving I know she'll quit thinking of me for future roles and responsibilities.

profile427

Hey guys,

So some good-ish news. My grad school prof/clinical director is open to the idea of the LOR. However, said prof wants me to provide a draft LOR.

Any recs on that?

I've started drafting a letter after jumping around the interwebs to see how to handle the situation. It feels really weird having to toot my own horn in third person, trying to not go overboard and respect my recommender's perspective and/or voice. I'm fortunate that this prof in particular is open to supporting me, as I'd have to start scraping the bottom of the barrel, being that I've been in industry for almost seven years.

Pacifico

If you have no experience doing this, get somebody else to draft it for you because it can be very difficult to capture the proper distance and tone when writing about yourself and it is usually pretty transparent. I'd go to a friend, spouse, family member for assistance here and then see if they can produce something for you.