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Hi! I could use some help choosing people to write my LORs. If it matters, I'm not quite K-JD - taking one year off in between to work. So here are my choices:

1) My honors thesis advisor. Definitely going to ask this one, he specifically told me to ask him for a rec. Awkward point: he thought (as I did) that I was headed the PhD route in my discipline, so I'll have to talk to him about that. Hopefully he won't mind - he himself considered law school, and I'm applying to his alma mater. But if anyone has advice about that conversation, I'd love to hear it!

2) My direct supervisor/boss/mentor at the internship I had for a year. She's not a professor - and she's actually only a few years out of college herself. But she is a mentor figure for me, she watched me grow a lot personally and professionally, and she can speak to my work ethic, personal ambitions (I want to go public interest, the internship was with a non-profit and in my particular field of interest) and also to my academic abilities/intellectual curiosity etc. Over the course of the year with her, I conducted a lengthy research project that was very important to the program (sorry, I'm trying to be circumspect here) and used the results of that research to create a new program that put me in a leadership role, so I feel like she can speak to some of the attributes that a professor would. I came in when the organization was about to lose its funding completely, and she sees me as having been instrumental to its recovery - her recommendation would be glowing.

3) The vice president of the above organization - would be nearly the same recommendation, but from a more impressive-sounding person.

4) My major advisor. She knew me pretty well my first 2.5 years, but I was a double major and finished that major pretty early, so I just haven't seen her in a while. She thinks (thought) I'm smart, and she's written me recommendations in the past, so I think she'd be willing to do it again.

As I'm writing this out, I feel like the advice I'm going to get is to use 1, 2, and 4. My concern is that the professors' recommendations would automatically be assumed more important, and that fantastic 2nd recommendation wouldn't get the attention it deserves. But if I send only 1 and 2, then I haven't sent 2 academic recs. Help?

Hello There!

I hope all is well.

In regards to letters of recommendation, it seems as though you have solid options to choose from. It’s great to get a letter from an academic advisor or professor who can attest to your ability to study and present yourself in an academic context and this can be weighed more heavily than a recommendation from an employer or extracurricular activity leader sometimes, honestly; however, also keep in mind that you will want a letter that is less generic and where the writer is genuinely backing you up on your strengths. Admissions departments are focused on the content of the letter in how it describes you as a person, a student, an employee, a member of the community. Since you are permitted around two to three letters of recommendation, it would be best to go with your instinct in who you believe will write you the best recommendation, highlighting your strengths, while still sticking to what the school actually requires (if they require 2 academic ones, send 2 academic ones). You can also provide supplementary material to the person writing your letter such as your resume or CV and a page explaining why you want to go into law so they get a better sense of who you are when writing it.

I hope this helps and best of luck!

lionqueen wrote:Hi! I could use some help choosing people to write my LORs. If it matters, I'm not quite K-JD - taking one year off in between to work. So here are my choices:

1) My honors thesis advisor. Definitely going to ask this one, he specifically told me to ask him for a rec. Awkward point: he thought (as I did) that I was headed the PhD route in my discipline, so I'll have to talk to him about that. Hopefully he won't mind - he himself considered law school, and I'm applying to his alma mater. But if anyone has advice about that conversation, I'd love to hear it!

2) My direct supervisor/boss/mentor at the internship I had for a year. She's not a professor - and she's actually only a few years out of college herself. But she is a mentor figure for me, she watched me grow a lot personally and professionally, and she can speak to my work ethic, personal ambitions (I want to go public interest, the internship was with a non-profit and in my particular field of interest) and also to my academic abilities/intellectual curiosity etc. Over the course of the year with her, I conducted a lengthy research project that was very important to the program (sorry, I'm trying to be circumspect here) and used the results of that research to create a new program that put me in a leadership role, so I feel like she can speak to some of the attributes that a professor would. I came in when the organization was about to lose its funding completely, and she sees me as having been instrumental to its recovery - her recommendation would be glowing.

3) The vice president of the above organization - would be nearly the same recommendation, but from a more impressive-sounding person.

4) My major advisor. She knew me pretty well my first 2.5 years, but I was a double major and finished that major pretty early, so I just haven't seen her in a while. She thinks (thought) I'm smart, and she's written me recommendations in the past, so I think she'd be willing to do it again.

As I'm writing this out, I feel like the advice I'm going to get is to use 1, 2, and 4. My concern is that the professors' recommendations would automatically be assumed more important, and that fantastic 2nd recommendation wouldn't get the attention it deserves. But if I send only 1 and 2, then I haven't sent 2 academic recs. Help?

Get professors. Your thesis adviser is a great one, your major adviser is also pretty good, however, if you have a professor who you've taken multiple times and did well with, or a professor who you had a particularly good rapport with, then choose him over the major adviser. You should be good though.