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"Non-academic" LOR from a professor?

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 8:23 pm
by Sourire
Hi everyone,

I apologize if this has been asked before, but I am facing a dilemma about who to ask for one of my LORs. I would really like to ask a professor I know from undergrad (I just graduated in June). The thing is, though, I know him from outside of class.

While I did actually have him as a professor my freshman year, it was a large lecture course and I did not get to know him personally during that time. I also got a B in the course so it wasn't exactly my best academic performance.

I got to know the professor through an extracurricular activity (student government), for which he was the faculty advisor. I had a large leadership role my senior year and worked with him in that capacity. I'm wondering if it would be appropriate for me to ask him for an LOR despite the fact that he does not really know me in an "academic" capacity -- i.e. he is not familiar with my coursework. My other LOR will also be from a professor I had for several courses.

Would it be better for me to just ask another professor who is more familiar with my coursework? Any advice is much appreciated. If it matters for the purposes of this question, my undergrad GPA was a 3.7X and I'm retaking the LSAT in September (first try was a 166, but I'm PTing at 171-174 now).

Thanks very much!

Re: "Non-academic" LOR from a professor?

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:16 pm
by cron1834
If you're going for HYSCCN (presuming you score in the 170s), I would suggest two actual academic letters. If not, then it's less of a big deal.

Re: "Non-academic" LOR from a professor?

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:44 pm
by Sourire
cron1834 wrote:If you're going for HYSCCN (presuming you score in the 170s), I would suggest two actual academic letters. If not, then it's less of a big deal.
Thanks for the input! I'm not applying to HYS, but I am shooting for the rest of the T14 plus a few others.

Re: "Non-academic" LOR from a professor?

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 11:29 pm
by cron1834
I had no trouble without academic LORs for the lower T14, but I'm not k-jd. If you got a second academic, and used your prof as a non-academic, I think you'd cover your bases everywhere.

Re: "Non-academic" LOR from a professor?

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2014 11:32 pm
by kevgogators
Absolutely