Recommendations

[alexx]

I have been out of school for a while, and don’t really keep in touch with my professors from college…is it okay to ask for recommendations from people at work?

[Jon Denning]

Hi Alexx - thanks for the question. My understanding is that it's almost always better to have academic recommendations instead of work-related recs, so if there's anything you can do to potentially reconnect with old professors or academic colleagues I'd recommend it.

This video might help shed some additional light on the subject -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3IC9ZVl ... r_embedded#! -- and our Free Help Area has some great admissions info as well (http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/help/content_index.cfm).

Thanks!

[Anne Chaconas]

Hey Alexx,

While I agree with Jon that academic recommendations are, for the most part, better for a law school application that non-academic/professional ones, the fact is that many students who have been out of school for a while simply don't have the ability to reconnect with professors or academic colleagues (and, in my mind, trying to reach out and jostle someone's memory about academic events many years in the past may end up yielding an LOR that's not as effective as one might have hoped).

Although you should at least make an effort to see if your old professors are still around and potentially willing to write you a rec, getting someone at work (or other non-academic endeavors) to write you a letter is certainly not frowned upon, and definitely something you can do. My advice for professional LORs would be the following:

1. Definitely get someone that is your clear superior to do so. Letters from co-workers will simply not have the same weight as those from direct supervisors or managers.

2. Advise them that this is not a standard letter of recommendation. They almost assuredly will write a recommendation letter that is most closely related to an employment recommendation letter, and that is not what you want at all. Law school LORs need recommenders to address the following points: Learning ability, work ethic, willingness to learn, leadership, intelligence, drive, and overall potential--and they all need to be addressed in an academic light. This, while not hard to do, is not what your professional recommenders will think of first. Make sure you make them aware of this.

A couple of other things to keep in mind. If you don't want to go to your current boss, and you don't have professors you can ask for letters, there are others that you might consider. For example:

1. Do you volunteer? If you do, your volunteer director would be a good person to consider as a potential recommender.

2. Do you play a sport? If so, your coach would be a great LOR source--they may not be able to speak about your academic abilities, but they can talk about your mental toughness, your physical prowess, and your ability to both lead and be a part of a team.

3. Former bosses. Did you leave past jobs (no more than 2 years past) on good terms? Then those old bosses might be a good place to seek out professional recommendations.

4. Have you ever interned or been a camp counselor? As long as these experiences are in the relatively close past (again, no more than 2 years, tops), you can seek out your immediate superiors and ask them if they wouldn't mind writing an LOR for you.

Good luck!