Thoughts on Balancing the LOR Situation

Comments

• RaeD4512 Alum Member

  October 2015 edited October 2015 38 karma

  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 Alum Inactive ⭐

  October 2015 8021 karma

  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 Alum Member

  November 2015 213 karma

  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 Alum Inactive ⭐

  November 2015 8021 karma

  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 Alum Member

  November 2015 109 karma

  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 Alum Member

  November 2015 213 karma

  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 Alum Inactive ⭐

  November 2015 8021 karma

  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.