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tng11 wrote:I was on exchange in the second half of my junior year, and there was one course I took where I particularly excelled in. Not only did I got the top grade, I was also nominated by the professor and sent off to a business case competition for a large supply chain management company, that I ultimately won. The class was in German, which was quite a stretch for myself considering I had only completed 2nd year German at my home university.

The catch is, the professor is back in Austria and I can't exactly go and ask him in person for a LOR. Second, he is a doctorate student and not tenured faculty. Thirdly, although he has good English, I don't know if he would know how to write a law school LOR. I'm wondering how something like this will look? I already have 2 professors at my UG institution in mind, but I recently thought of this as something that could complement my PS, which will be based upon my international experience. I'm applying for the 2012 cycle, but thought I would start on these matters (when I really should be studying for exams.

I'd give it a shot. Sounds like this would a very unique letter that would hopefully speak to your skills and characteristics in a very positive light. It's no problem that he is only a doctorate student; it's better to get a letter from someone who knows you well and can speak personally and reasonably familiarly about you. If one of the people best to do that from your education career is a doctorate student, then by all means request a letter from him.

I would just shoot him an email or phone call, whatever your preference. I know that some people here on TLS have experience requested LORs from professors that they are unable to speak to in person, and it hasn't been a big deal. Most professors don't really know how to write a "law school LOR" but most are familiar with LORs in general (they themselves had to get one back when they were applying for graduate degree programs). I would just explain clearly what the purpose of a law school LOR is (generally to speak to your academic ability and classroom contributions), or other things about how you want his LOR to function as a piece of your application package puzzle.