Thoughts on Re-Using a LOR from last year? Forum

[GentlemanJim]

This was written in December 09, and was only sent out to a few schools. Still basically accurate except for a couple uses of present tense. The only reason I want to re-use is because the LOR writer is insanely busy and it was like pulling teeth last year to get it from him. NOTE: I will be re-applying to 2 of the same schools.

What do y'all think?

[DearCan]

From what I've read on TLS letters of recommendation don't exactly expire. If it's from last year you should be good to go.

If you're re-applying to the same schools, I don't know. If you think it was a strong letter and didn't effect you poorly last cycle, then it should be fine.

[minuit]

I dunno if this is correct, but I used the same LORs from last year. I figured they were outdated (I was at the time a student in their classes and have since graduated) but then I thought, why would it make a difference if it is still a good rec?

[TT09]

This was written in December 09, and was only sent out to a few schools. Still basically accurate except for a couple uses of present tense. The only reason I want to re-use is because the LOR writer is insanely busy and it was like pulling teeth last year to get it from him. NOTE: I will be re-applying to 2 of the same schools.

What do y'all think?

Yeah, that sounds somewhat like what happened in my case. I took the LSAT Dec. '09 and had the first of my 2 LORs written within a week. However, the 2nd one was not officially sent in until around the first of February. It took him well over two months for him to finally get it in and I had given him plenty of time to write it. As you can imagine, I was not too thrilled about it since I had wasted precious time waiting for him to write the damn thing (he was very distinguished in his field; the only reason I felt inclined to wait so long). All that being said, I am definitely re-using his LOR for this cycle. I don't really feel that schools frown upon this. Of course, that's just my 2 cents.