Nontraditional applicant, weird LoR situation Forum

[hellocactus]

I graduated in college in 2010 with a 3.62 GPA. I've spent the past 5 years since graduation working with my spouse, owning a small business/ Sooo I have work experience but it's not like I can get a LoR from my husband.

I did OK in college but I didn't really have any meaningful relationships with my instructors and I didn't care a lot about school at the time. While I could probably have asked a few for a pretty vanilla LoR way back when, I am confident none of them would remember me today.

Now that I am older and wiser and actually know what I want to do, I want to apply to law school... but I have no one to write me a LoR. I can afford to go back to school (same university) for a couple of quarters, take some interesting classes, and get a few professors to write me LoRs. This seems like kind of a waste of time and money (although I will not be going into debt to do it) and I am sort of worried it will look bad but I don't know what else to do. I know the additional classes won't affect my gpa for law school admission purposes but at least it would help me out with the other aspects of my application, and I don't really know of any other way around this problem. What should I do?

[Stillblade]

LoRs are absolutely not important enough to justify re-enrolling and taking some random classes. Your best bet in your situation is to go to a professor that taught a class that you did well in, bring your resume, transcript and a copy of a previous assignment you had for that class (especially if it was something like a written take home final) and just telling them your situation. It's not gonna be the greatest letter in the world but a vanilla set of LoRs won't really lessen your chances at admission anywhere except for Yale and Berkeley.

Whatever you do, best of luck!

[debdeb2]

Professors are pros at writing LORs. They have a template they'll work from. When you need to go back to a professor who may not remember you (this is more common than you may realize, esp. at large research institutions) you just need to do a lot of the work for them: send 3 to 7 bullet points of major accomplishments while you were in school and since, remind them of your grade in the course and any significant projects you completed, absolutely send your resume, and they may want your personal statement too. They may even ask that you draft a letter for them, which they will edit and submit.

A large percentage of LORs are boilerplate-positive, "This student was enrolled in these classes, did well, participated regularly, added to the classroom positively, took charge of group projects, was a capable presenter, etc etc. Furthermore student X was an active participant on campus, participating in Club A and sport B. I have nothing but positive things to say. He/she would be a fine addition to your cohort. Sincerely, X."

If you're lucky, you can get them to chuck a "This student is in the top 10% of students I have taught in this course."

providing LORs is part of a professor's job, so as long as you give a month's time to submit the letter and follow up with a reminder and a thank you, you should be fine. The only extra caveat is that some professors discourage students from attending law school because they have unhappy lawyer friends, so they may want a blurb from you about why this is a good choice for you personally.

Best of luck -