Do I Need A Second Academic Rec? Forum

[RSN]

Hey TLS,

Long time lurker, first time poster (lot of that this time of year I guess). Have a question for the group about recommendations.

So here's my situation: I graduated from undergrad in 2012, and I've been doing paralegal/research work at a nonprofit since April 2013 (had a similar legal job prior that I left for the current gig). I'm getting apps ready to apply (hopefully) by the end of September, will be applying across T14 with some exceptions, aiming for H. Did the December 2013 LSAT, PS is 95% done, so I'm just at the recommendation stage.

I currently have two recs lined up. One is from my undergrad major advisor, who I did three classes with through my college career, knows me really well, also was on my thesis committee, although not my primary advisor for that. Interesting wrinkle that she's never written a law school rec before, but she's done them for other types of grad school apps and has done several for me for internships and jobs. She's also the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the department, for what it's worth.

My other one is from my current boss, the head of our legal department and a well-respected public interest litigator. We work closely, he thinks highly of me, and he's definitely a great person to have testify to my abilities.

So those are two solid recs, I think. My question is if I should be seeking out a second academic rec or not. Having spent a lot of time reading these lovely forums, Spivey blog, countless Google docs, and of course school websites, I know 2 total recs is the minimum for almost all schools, and that nearly all profess to be fine with one being from an employer if you're 2+ years out of undergrad as I am. (The exception of course being Y, but I'm not even planning to apply, unless we get to January and the picture isn't looking good otherwise). That said, I have heard some suggestions (lately, hence the question now) that despite what they say, not having two academic recs can weaken the application for some adcoms, and I certainly don't want to come up short and wonder if it would've made the difference.

With all that in mind, what do you think, team?

I should note that if the answer's yes, my prospects aren't that great. I have two professors who I had classes with for a single semester in 2011 that I haven't talked to since and didn't get to know all that well. I also have my advisor from my second major, who is actually a very big name in his field and has definitely written a ton of law school recs in his career, but I only had one large lecture class with him sophomore year (2009), and only met with him 6-7 times total, mostly to make sure I was fulfilling my major requirements right, so he definitely doesn't know me all that well. Between these choices, what would make the most sense, if it was necessary (which it's hopefully not)?

Wow, that got really long. Sorry for the life story. Thanks for your help!

[Ti Malice]

It's not critical, but it would definitely be better to have two academic LORs. The schools that care about LORs are all within the T14, and to the extent these schools care about LORs, they're interested in assessments from people who have evaluated you in an academic setting. If the employer letter will be something than just your usual generically positive letter, then you could submit it as a third LOR.

Have you saved any graded papers from classes in which you did outstanding work? While it's obviously preferable, you don't necessarily have to have a close personal relationship with any of your other former profs to get a strong LOR. If you can show a prof some graded papers that he/she found impressive, then the prof will have what's necessary for being able to write a good LOR for law school purposes. Why can't your primary thesis advisor write you one?

Also, you should think about applying to Y. You don't have to have done anything extraordinary in your work since undergrad. Most of the people here who are two or three years out from undergrad have not.

[RSN]

Thanks for your reply, Ti. The employer letter I think will be strong and unique, so I definitely want to include it, but good to know that two academic recommendations is definitely stronger than what I'm currently looking at.

I do have papers from classes I did well in at my parents' house (I'm assuming you mean graded with their comments?), and would have to have them pull them out, but it's probably doable. It's good to know that you don't have to have had a particularly strong relationship with an LOR writer though, as long as the work you did for them is good -- I think I may have been overestimating how close you need to have been with the professor to get an effective rec.

I could conceivably get one from my primary thesis advisor as well, to answer your question, but I didn't really know him before my thesis year, and don't feel like we ever really connected that well, but again, may be over-thinking it.

Definitely some thinking to do about this in the next few days. Will also think about applying to Y, which will certainly be easier to do with a second academic rec, and helps that it's not rolling as well. Thanks again for the advice.