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Ok, so I plan on applying to a handful of schools as a transfer. Many of the schools have not yet opened their application windows. Should I use the LSAC service for LoRs or request several copies from the professors and individually mail them to the schools once I apply to them?

random5483 wrote:Ok, so I plan on applying to a handful of schools as a transfer. Many of the schools have not yet opened their application windows. Should I use the LSAC service for LoRs or request several copies from the professors and individually mail them to the schools once I apply to them?

I went through all of the school's websites to check the instructions for transfers and all of them allow LOR's through LSAC. It's just law school transcripts (for some schools) that need to be sent directly.

keg411 wrote:

random5483 wrote:Ok, so I plan on applying to a handful of schools as a transfer. Many of the schools have not yet opened their application windows. Should I use the LSAC service for LoRs or request several copies from the professors and individually mail them to the schools once I apply to them?

I went through all of the school's websites to check the instructions for transfers and all of them allow LOR's through LSAC. It's just law school transcripts (for some schools) that need to be sent directly.

Dunno about this year, but Stanford required LOR's to be sent directly with a special form last year.

random5483 wrote:Ok, so I plan on applying to a handful of schools as a transfer. Many of the schools have not yet opened their application windows. Should I use the LSAC service for LoRs or request several copies from the professors and individually mail them to the schools once I apply to them?

Last year, Yale provided their own recommendation form that you were required to sign and then give to your recommender. It provided a place for you to sign a waiver of your right to see the submitted recommendation letter, and instructions for the recommenders to mail their letters directly to the YLS admissions office. (I believe Stanford's recommender form is similar, but since I ended up not applying there I'm not entirely sure how they work.)

Otherwise, you want to use the LSAC service, for a few reasons:

1) You'll print out an official LSAC form to give your recommender with instructions for them to mail their recommendation directly to the law school. They won't be giving anything back to you, they take care of mailing it themselves. You don't have to deal with the letters yourself.

2) The LSAC form contains the waiver box, and you want to sign that waiver. It doesn't look so good if you're not willing to let your recommenders speak about you in confidence.

3) Some admissions offices really do not like fielding calls about whether an individual part of your application, such as a recommendation letter, has arrived yet. You don't want to annoy the admissions office, because even if the receptionist taking your call isn't the one deciding your fate, she knows the people who do. By having your letters submitted to LSAC, you can log onto LSAC and verify whether your letters have been received.

So what you'll want to do is wait until applications are out (many come out on April 15, so not far away at all), login to your LSAC.org account, and make/print recommendation forms for each professor. You might even want to make one for each school, if you're going to have them tailor the recommendations to individual schools. Then you sign the waivers, give those forms to your professors, and wait.

vanwinkle wrote:

random5483 wrote:Ok, so I plan on applying to a handful of schools as a transfer. Many of the schools have not yet opened their application windows. Should I use the LSAC service for LoRs or request several copies from the professors and individually mail them to the schools once I apply to them?

Last year, Yale provided their own recommendation form that you were required to sign and then give to your recommender. It provided a place for you to sign a waiver of your right to see the submitted recommendation letter, and instructions for the recommenders to mail their letters directly to the YLS admissions office. (I believe Stanford's recommender form is similar, but since I ended up not applying there I'm not entirely sure how they work.)

Otherwise, you want to use the LSAC service, for a few reasons:

1) You'll print out an official LSAC form to give your recommender with instructions for them to mail their recommendation directly to the law school. They won't be giving anything back to you, they take care of mailing it themselves. You don't have to deal with the letters yourself.

2) The LSAC form contains the waiver box, and you want to sign that waiver. It doesn't look so good if you're not willing to let your recommenders speak about you in confidence.

3) Some admissions offices really do not like fielding calls about whether an individual part of your application, such as a recommendation letter, has arrived yet. You don't want to annoy the admissions office, because even if the receptionist taking your call isn't the one deciding your fate, she knows the people who do. By having your letters submitted to LSAC, you can log onto LSAC and verify whether your letters have been received.

So what you'll want to do is wait until applications are out (many come out on April 15, so not far away at all), login to your LSAC.org account, and make/print recommendation forms for each professor. You might even want to make one for each school, if you're going to have them tailor the recommendations to individual schools. Then you sign the waivers, give those forms to your professors, and wait.

Thanks everyone for the responses, especially vanwinkle.