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Tailored Letters of Rec for each school? help me please :)
Sara_3080
Alum Member
Hello everyone!
So one of my previous professors that has agreed to write me a LOR has asked me to tell her where I've decided to apply so she can tailor the letter for each school's specific programs. Does having a LOR addressing each specific school have any benefit?? Or does it not really matter? I'm not 100% sure exactly where I'm applying yet anyways (will finalize after I've taken my Nov LSAT) and I'm worried I'll decide to apply to an additional program last minute or something and then end up without her letter at all for that school because I didn't tell her about it ahead of time or something. And then there's the fear that I'll assign one of the letters to the wrong school.. Isn't it just easier for her to do one letter that works for all of the schools or what do you all recommend? I'm not sure what looks best.
Thank you for reading!
Comments
I don't think it's of much value to have school specific LORs. The only exception I can think of is if the professor is an alum of the school you're interested in, but even then a specific letter isn't needed. It certainly could make things completed when you're submitting apps. The LOR is not really a space for the recommender to highlight what the school has to offer and how you'll add to that (at least from what I know, I might be wrong), but rather your academic capabilities.
If they’re willing to do that for a few of your top choices that’s very nice of them and I would take them up on that. It might help your app by like 1% and wouldn’t hurt so why not. Ask them to write a generic lor for all schools first.
Ah okay, do you think I should be asking all my recommenders to do that for every school then?
If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't ask them to do it (unless they volunteer to do so).
Yeah I wouldn’t ask but take them up on their offer if they offer to do so.
I had a custom version of an LOR written for Stanford since their application gives you a place for one. (the prof was a Stanford Law alum.) But otherwise, I don't think it's necessary.
I just had general letters for simplicity's sake but can see value in school-specific letters.
Sometimes, that is. What did you end up doing?
Yeah, what @Alex said. The only school I've heard of that specifically cares about it is Stanford. Unless the recommender is an alum of the school, tailoring it to each isn't required and may or may not be any boost. I think it'd be an ok approach to ask for a generic and maybe a couple tailored for your top choice schools. It's so nice of them to offer! But it's generally not necessary. None of mine were school specific.
This is really helpful, thank you everyone!