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I'm trying to make the JD/MBA R1 application deadline for Penn, which is October 1. If I miss it, I will have to wait until December for my application to be looked at.

I have 1 academic rec in, but my professional recommender, who was a supervisor at a previous project, still hasn't submitted my rec. He said that he would have it in by now and he is currently out of the country. I asked my supervisor on my current project and he said he could write me a recommendation until his boss found out and told him and everyone else on my team that they are not allowed to write recommendations because it's a "conflict of interest". I'm now considering asking a colleague for a recommendation. She's the same level as me at the company, but we've both been promoted and she has had leadership positions at the company. I'm not sure how much this will affect my law school application, but this would really hurt for the MBA application.

My question is, should I ask the colleague to do the JD/MBA recommendation or should I wait it out with my current professional recommender and potentially wait until December? There's also a chance that I may never get the rec from him since the flaking has been happening since early August.

In case you're wondering, I asked this on an MBA forum and didn't get any good responses. And for MBA admissions, I'm a very strong candidate and recommendations and interviews (which are important for MBA admissions) are really the only things that can keep me out.

Don't have the colleague write the LoR. Professional letters are already devalued in the law school application process relative to academic ones; having someone at your level (instead of a supervisor) writing one would most likely hurt you since it shows bad judgment and suggests an inability to have someone who evaluates your performance write something positive about you.

bp shinners wrote:Don't have the colleague write the LoR. Professional letters are already devalued in the law school application process relative to academic ones; having someone at your level (instead of a supervisor) writing one would most likely hurt you since it shows bad judgment and suggests an inability to have someone who evaluates your performance write something positive about you.

Thanks for the advice. I think that right now I have an inability to have someone write something positive about me since everyone that I've ever worked for is either too busy to write me one, was told my their boss that they can't write one, or has never met me in person (I worked for my first manager for over two years and never met her in person).

Professional recs are essentially required on business school applications and the 2 JD/MBA programs that I'm applying to now both use the business school application with a supplemental section for law application requirements. Realizing how much the people that I work for are hindering my life goals has really made me rethink the idea of going to professional school to begin with.

Sounds very frustrating (I'm also waiting on a LOR to submit), but I'd definitely wait if I were you.