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I have been out of school for several years. Whom should I ask for letters of recommendation? How important is an academic recommendation? Any suggestions? What have you done? Thanks!

thelogicalconstruct wrote:I have been out of school for several years. Whom should I ask for letters of recommendation? How important is an academic recommendation? Any suggestions? What have you done? Thanks!

Depending on the school, I would suggest 2 academic LoRs and 1 professional one.

Some recs only want 1 or 2 LoRs, for those you can do 1 academic and 1 professional.

I only know from my own experience: out of school 7 years. No academic recommendations. Just 2 recommendations from former employers. Got into a T6 so far, which fits my numbers.

Honestly, I'm only one year out of school and I used zero academic recs. My cycle is going pretty much how I predicted it.

I've been out of grad school for 5 years, and undergrad for 10. I got one letter from a grad school prof, and one from a current boss. Got into all my schools, so worked okay. Good luck!

The general recommendation is to get at least one academic recommendation, and only go the employer route if you've been out of school for 5+ years.

That being said, it's not going to make much of a difference either way. Go with whoever you think is going to write the strongest letter. If you can get a good academic letter, go for it; however, a generic letter from a professor isn't going to do as much as a great letter from an employer (although neither of them is going to be a game-changer).

I'm about 18 months out of undergrad and both of my letters came from employers. Honestly, as someone above me said, isn't it better to have two awesome letters from employers who, presumably, know you well, than generic letters from professors? Granted if your only work experience is part time at McDonalds this doesn't apply, but I'd like to think its the quality of the letter that counts, so long as you have a legitimate reason for them not being academic in nature. Thats just my opinion though, and I've only gotten one decision back in my cycle (which was an acceptance to my safety).

I graduated in 2001 and used 2 letters from employers both of whom were lawyers. I just have not been in touch with any of my undergraduate professors in the last 10 years and did not want to risk getting mediocre LORs because they did not remember me.

So far, my cycle has gone at least as well as I expected. I have gotten into two T14 so far including one T6 but I haven't heard anything about scholarships yet. I haven't gotten any rejections yet, but I did get on the preferred waitlist at one other T14. I fully expect to have several rejections coming my way soon, but I am satisfied with the options I have at this point. I also have two substantial (full-ride or nearly full-ride) scholarship offers from T20 schools.

FWIW, I think it is especially important for a non-traditional applicant to focus on the personal statement. I also would not hesitate to apply without academic LORs if you have employer recommenders who are willing to put effort into it. Also, don't hesitate to apply to a lot of schools if you have fee waivers! HTH