Let's Talk LORs for Applicants with Multiple Years of Work Experience Forum

[big_willy_style_333]

Okay, so I just read this post by Asha, and she pretty much scared me straight: https://www.law.yale.edu/admissions/jd- ... pplication. I think it would be helpful to get a discussion about LORs going for non-K-JD applicants who have been out of the academic game for multiple years, so I'm hoping my situation can help facilitate such discussion.

I was originally planning on getting one LOR from an undergrad teacher and another from my employer, but now I'm almost certainly not going to do that. I have been out of school for a little over two years now, and while my work is both academic and legal in nature (FWIW, I am a consultant for an economic expert witness at a large-ish consulting firm), I'm thinking I'll need two recs from undergrad and then possibly an employer rec.

I guess my question is regarding how to pick recommenders when you a) did not make any strong connections with teachers in college (all of my classes were lecture based, with basically no discussion) and b) have now been out of school for multiple years, during which your teachers have had many hundreds of other students in their classes.

I have one teacher in mind who will be able to write a decent rec (I sent him a few emails the year after I graduated), I have one professor for whom I did research during my last semester and with whom I met one-on-one on a weekly basis, and I have, let's say, a handful of other teachers that would write slightly below average recs because while I did well in their classes, I never connected with them. I never had the professor with whom I did research for any classes, but I have kept up with her a bit more frequently via email and one phone call as I was thinking about potentially getting my PhD.

Alright, long post, but I'm thinking one rec from the first teacher listed above, one rec from the prof I did research with, and one rec from my current employer (who has his PhD and used to be a prof, so I feel like he would be able to speak to my intellectual curiosity/learning abilities).

In y'all's opinion, what is the optimal selection of recommendations for me or those similarly situated?

[ponderingmeerkat]

Dude, don't take Yale's advice and assume it's standard across all T6's/T14's and certainly not across all T1's. My opinion is you'd be doing yourself a terrible disservice if you passed on receiving an LOR from a real-world supervisor who can speak to your leadership qualities and ability to learn/assimilate new skill-sets in an effort to get a prof's recommendation from a class you took 5 years ago (and who can't remember who the fuck you are). Spivey's take on this:

http://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/the-cu ... mendation/

Point being, yes, a KJD should probably get an LOR from their professor/mentor and not their shift supervisor at Starbucks. But, if you've been working at Deloitte for the last 5 years, you'd be strongly advised to get your LOR's from there and not your Spanish 101 class professor.