Letter of Recommendation Crisis - worth an addendum? Forum

[cartmanbrah123]

I graduated from a top 30 national university in May 2021 and I've been working in a research-focused field related to law. I plan to apply to law school in the coming fall. Recently I've been trying to get letters of recommendation from my profs in junior year and senior year, but I got no luck so far (I'll probably follow up later).

I'm considering not including a strictly "academic" LoR for the following reasons:

- I studied abroad in my entire junior year, and the education system there is a bit different from the US system. The "lecturers" are profs that just give the lecture and leave and have no interactions with the students. The "teachers" are basically TAs but they know me pretty well and grade my papers, etc. However, after I left the study-abroad school in 2020, my email with them expired and many of the teachers left the school. I couldn't find their contact information now to request LoR.

- My senior year was entirely virtual because of COVID and I was located outside the US with a 12-hour time difference. For this reason, I don't think my profs in my senior year know me too well.

- During my junior year abroad, I worked at a think tank part-time and I can probably get a LoR from the Director there. We worked pretty closely and he knows me pretty well. The work is mostly research-oriented and he can probably speak on my research/writing ability. The work there also is an important part of the narrative of why I want to practice a certain area of law.

Is this a legitimate reason to write an addendum and not to have a LoR from school? Or should I push harder and follow up more on my profs? I sent out emails to them last week and got no responses.

Another thing to add is that I have left school for 1.5 years, and at the time of applying, I would have worked for 2 years, if this information means anything to the consideration.

Any input would be appreciated! Thanks!

[nixy]

I think you should continue to try to get at least one academic letter. It doesn’t have to set the world on fire, but you haven’t been out long enough to quite justify no letters from profs at all.

[Access]

Agree with Nixy, you should definitely reach out again and get the LORs. Make sure you note your application timeline/deadlines and apologize for the late/expedited request. You've only sent 1 email, I wouldn't give up so soon.