No academic LOR a bad signal? Forum

[MtnGinger]

I’m back after applying years ago to law school and not going due to taking care of family and then after that was over family and friends talked me out of trying again. I’m now 5 years out of undergrad and spent 4 working and this past year I was in a phd program which I just left and am back to wanting to go to law school. However I am not in contact with any of my undergrad professors and wasn’t close with any to begin with anyway.

I left my grad program due to my advisor who I would consider emotionally abusive so of course I would’nt ask him. Which leave me with just coming out of school and no academic LOR. Would this be a huge red flag for adcoms? I was in only a few classes this year all outside my department and not close to those professors so I guess I could email one and hope for the best but I worry the fact I quit would make the letter not great. I guess I could maybe ask my old undergrad rec if she saved her old letter and if she would resubmit idk if that would work to have an academic letter.

[Bingo_Bongo]

Others might disagree with me, but I don't think LORs are that big of a deal at all, unless they're from Erwin Chemerinsky (or Oprah Winfrey), or if they're actually not recommendations but actually slams (which actually happens sometimes). If you just get two to three people who know you in a professional setting, that's probably fine.

If you do want an academic LOR, I wouldn't feel weird about e-mailing a professor you had from years past. They probably get that all the time. Worst case scenario is they just say no.

[The Lsat Airbender]

I don't know about "huge" red flag but I'd reach out to 5-6 old professors just to see what they say.

What are your numbers? If you pulled a 3.95 in college it might actually be better to just ignore academic recs (since you don't think you're going to get a stellar one) and let your transcript do the talking. If you're a splitter I'd work harder to get a college professor to vouch for you.

[MtnGinger]

I don't know my stats yet when I applied last time I was 168 with a 3.8 but my GPA dropped my final semester and my graduate GPA is 3.7 so my LSAC GPA will probably be around 3.6-3.7 and I'm retaking the LSAT. Does anyone know if professors can see their old recs and I could ask my undergrad one to just update it otherwise I don't have a clear academic one to ask for that I would be sure would be a good one.

[The Lsat Airbender]

I don't know my stats yet when I applied last time I was 168 with a 3.8 but my GPA dropped my final semester and my graduate GPA is 3.7 so my LSAC GPA will probably be around 3.6-3.7 and I'm retaking the LSAT. Does anyone know if professors can see their old recs and I could ask my undergrad one to just update it otherwise I don't have a clear academic one to ask for that I would be sure would be a good one.

Graduate GPA doesn't affect LSAC's calculation so you're probably doing a bit better than you thought. I'd definitely reach out to anyone who's already written you a letter and ask if they could update it. They'd probably be happy to hear from you.

[notinbiglaw]

I barely went to class in college. When I asked for recommendations for law school, professors that haven't heard from me for like 7 years probably just wrote something random after seeing I did okay in their classes and I still got in schools my stats suggested I would.

Like someone posted above, unless it's a really outstanding LoR, LoRs probably don't really matter.

[QContinuum]

I barely went to class in college. When I asked for recommendations for law school, professors that haven't heard from me for like 7 years probably just wrote something random after seeing I did okay in their classes and I still got in schools my stats suggested I would.

Like someone posted above, unless it's a really outstanding LoR, LoRs probably don't really matter.

Generally, LoRs don't move the needle much/at all. What you want to look out for is writers that may backstab you.