Foreign Language Recommendations Forum

[RedTop]

My girlfriend's academic recommendations are written in French. (She was a French major undergrad, and went to grad school for French.) LSAC says that if recommendations are written in a foreign language, they need a "notarized copy." That's not a problem per se, in that there are plenty of places you can go and give them a document and say "I need a notarized English translation." But when you're not supposed to see the letter itself - does anyone have experience with how this is handled? The recommendations themselves are several years old, from when she was an undergrad, and the professors have retired.

[stargazin]

Seeing your letter if the professor gave it to you is fine. You can still waive your right to see it later in the school file (the box on the LOR form). So I think she can just go ahead and get it notarized and sent in.

[General Tso]

thats kinda weird...I thought most foreign language profs at American universities spoke English?

[WrappedUpInBooks]

It sounds like maybe the recommendations were written in French because they were for French graduate school? If that is the case, she should probably get new recommendations targeted to law school anyway.

[RedTop]

Well maybe that's a whole new topic. She will probably get a LOR from her current boss, who of course knows her better over the past six years, but how much would it matter to have an LOR from a professor in her major from eight years ago targeted toward grad school in that field, and targeted toward law school?

I've always kind of wondered about LOR's anyway, because if you can't find two people who have good things to say about you, you're in pretty tough shape anyway. I've always kind of figured it's how strongly they recommend you. You're not going to go to people who will say bad things about you, it's just HOW good they are.