Letter of Recommendation Questions

[emccready24]

I am currently in the process of requesting my letters of recommendation and I have a few questions.

First, how do you go about asking to view a letter that they wrote for you, if you waived your rights on LSAC and haven't talked about seeing it with the recommender? I'd like to view the letters to see if they are strong and if I need to look elsewhere.

Second, my current boss, an attorney, is going to write a letter for me. He's very accomplished and is an active alumni, so it's not like he's distant from this world. He is a bit convinced that the letters don't need to be "fluffy" and that law schools don't read them as thoroughly as I think they do. He thinks that they just need to see that you have a letter, like's it's just a check mark on the application. I've seen his draft and it's okay, but I still think it's a bit bland and general. He said I could provide advice, but I'm not sure how to do that? Also, any advice on how I can convince him that schools do care about personalized letters?

Thank you!!

[Luke Haqq]

Hi emccready24!

Happy to make some responsive suggestions about letters of recommendation.

First, you write,

how do you go about asking to view a letter that they wrote for you, if you waived your rights on LSAC and haven't talked about seeing it with the recommender? I'd like to view the letters to see if they are strong and if I need to look elsewhere.

As I understand your question, it seems like this is a situation in which it wouldn't be appropriate to ask to view a recommender's letter. If you "waived your rights on LSAC," this means that one has signed the form acknowledging that one agrees to give up rights to review the letter. If a student has signified that the student has waived/given up the right to view a letter, then it wouldn't be appropriate for the student to view the letter after that point.

If you're uncertain about the strength of your references and are trying to determine whether or not a given reference is strong, then I'd recommend trying to ascertain that with the reference first before you sign the waive/do not waive form regarding references. If you don't think the person will be able to write a strong reference, that is a good reason to consider not submitting it at all. If you are concerned about a given reference and can think of others who can write stronger ones, then all other things being equal, it'd be better to go with the people who can write a stronger letter.

Second, you ask,

He said I could provide advice, but I'm not sure how to do that? Also, any advice on how I can convince him that schools do care about personalized letters?

If a reference is asking for you to provide advice for writing the recommendation, probably the most effective way to do so would be to send the reference your personal statement. The personal statement is the most central place on applications for you to convey (to admissions committees) why you are applying to law school. Given this function, it can also be quite helpful for references who seek to understand how law school fits into the bigger picture for an applicant on whose behalf they are writing.

You can also articulate those why-law-school aspects in an email or conversation with a reference, but having that narrative within the personal statement can be a helpful foundation for references to look to as they draft their letters, so that they can better speak to your capabilities, goals, passions, etc. You can of course supplement this by personalizing to your relationship with a given reference; you might, for example, send the reference your personal statement with an email that also explains how it relates to particular courses/professional experiences in which you worked with the reference.