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Today I received an LSAC notification about a rec letter I asked for a few months ago from a former employer at a firm I interned at this past summer. The position required a lot of research and synthesis, and at the time I thought it would be a good law school rec letter. Since then, I forgot about it and got two good rec letters from professors.

I've submitted several of my apps, but I was wondering if there is any harm in submitting this letter too. My supervisor was a partner at the firm in question, but isn't related to the legal field. I know the letter is a good letter, but I don't know how it would come across in an application.

Am I being paranoid about it?

Thank you!

gjohnson wrote:I know the letter is a good letter, but I don't know how it would come across in an application.

If it's a good letter, it can only be a positive. I don't understand your concern/question.

Are you worried the schools will be frustrated by receiving an extra letter after your app is complete? If they haven't read it, which they probably haven't, it's hard to see why they'd care.

Should anyone who have 3 letters on file, submit applications only with 2 and send the additional only when waitlisted, assuming the third letter is just as good or complementary to the other two?

It seems one of the recommenders of OP submitted a third letter, but he has already submitted applications with two. Sending an extra update to the schools can be a concern though. It may also depend on specific schools. I am sure it's going to vary if the school is hys, t14 or something else.

anonid wrote:Are you worried the schools will be frustrated by receiving an extra letter after your app is complete? If they haven't read it, which they probably haven't, it's hard to see why they'd care.

This is why you need to ask actual adcoms. Normal people don't understand how adcoms think.

Many won't care or even notice, but some will.
It is extra work for them. Every school has its own system, and sometimes individual adcoms can vary.

First, you must check each app to see if they ask for a specific number of recs, and make sure you don't exceed that. If you do, some look at that as an inability/unwillingness to follow directions.

It may sound ridiculous (and I am not disagreeing), but adcoms are often "quirky" because they can be. Adcoms LOVE to tell stories about the "unfortunate student I really wanted to admit, but the app had TWO typos!" Who knows whether this actually happened or it's exagerated, but why risk it?

TCR is to hold on to the "extra" letter in case you need it for waitlist or other purposes later. It can be used as an excuse to "update" the school and show them you are still interested.
Once your app is complete, don't bug them until they ask for something or contact you with a decision.

Not to mention, if you send the letter now, you won't have it for later. I actually still have a letter on file that I never sent because I ended up not needing it.

does this mean that even if one has 3 letters ready, only the required 2 should be submitted? does this apply to all hysccn where only 2 are required?

There is a caveat: if you've been out of school for a bit and have held a steady job, then you're going to want to tack an employer rec onto your two academic recs. I graduated in 2010 and have had the same job and boss since (with a one year sabbatical for grad school). It looked intuitively weird not having someone account for those 3 years out of school.

Needless to say, a summer internship boss during uni isn't adding much, especially as compared to your two academic references.

In terms of sending them in to get off WL, UVA's dean flat out said it was useless in an email to WLers last year. Not sure about other schools but I assume the logic works. In his words "additional recs don't move the needle at this point in the game."

maybe save it for waitlists

Seoulless wrote:There is a caveat: if you've been out of school for a bit and have held a steady job, then you're going to want to tack an employer rec onto your two academic recs. I graduated in 2010 and have had the same job and boss since (with a one year sabbatical for grad school). It looked intuitively weird not having someone account for those 3 years out of school.

Needless to say, a summer internship boss during uni isn't adding much, especially as compared to your two academic references.

In terms of sending them in to get off WL, UVA's dean flat out said it was useless in an email to WLers last year. Not sure about other schools but I assume the logic works. In his words "additional recs don't move the needle at this point in the game."

so if one has 3 recs submit all of them with the application, or hold one till the waitlist? In your case it would be 1 academic, 1 employer and 1 held till waitlist.

In my case I submitted 3: two from undergraduate professors and one from my boss.

I didn't bother to get one from a grad school professor because I knew even for my best class, the professor would have far less to say than either of the two undergraduate professors.

I'm not sure how useful my boss's recommendation was for that matter too. I work in finance and am far removed from the legal aspects or academic aspects of it. It just looked really strange to have the same job for a while and not have a recimmendation.

A recommendation from a summer internship on the surface does not seem like it would add much value to the app unless you know its an incredible rec.