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Who Should Write Your Recommendations?
Selecting appropriate recommenders involves sifting many factors. In general, you will be expected to submit recommendations from people who know you and are well placed to address the key issues concerning your candidacy. You will want them to state that you have the appropriate intellectual ability, self-discipline, and character to succeed at School X. The obvious choice—which any school's admission information will quickly tell you—is a professor who knows you well.
If there is not a wealth of obvious candidates, then your choice is relatively easy. However, it is to your advantage to be able to pick and choose. For those of you who are reading this ahead of the game, and have not yet forged relationships with two or three talented professors, start now. After selecting a professor as an ideal supporter for you, make sure to be in several of his or her classes over a period of time. Sign up for office hours. Make yourself known as an intelligent—but not obnoxious—presence in class.
Having done this, it should be simple to follow these rules:
- Choose people who know you well. Do not choose the Nobel Prize-winning Chair of the English Department if all he is going to say is that you sat in the front row and seemed to be paying attention. Instead, choose people who can make the recommendation credible and powerful by illustrating the points they make with anecdotes that show you at your best. Need we say it? The people who will be able to do this are those who know you well.
- Choose people who genuinely like you. Why? People who like you will take the time to write you a good recommendation. This is impressive in its own right. A recommendation that looks as though it took only five minutes to write suggests that that is exactly how much time the recommender felt you deserved. In contrast, a recommendation that looks carefully done and well thought out suggests that the recommender is committed to helping you. One other reason for choosing someone who likes you: She or he will try to put a positive spin on things, choosing examples that show you in a good light and describing them as positively as possible. Someone who does not much care may well write the first thing that comes to mind.
- Choose people who can write well. Do not assume that all professors are created equal, particularly when it comes to articulating themselves. Pay attention, for example, to the written comments your professors leave on your papers. How eloquent—and pertinent—are their critiques? The last thing you want is a recommender who, being unable to perfectly express himself, is consequently unable to convey you.
- Choose people from a range of fields and backgrounds. If you are sending schools more than one recommendation letter, be sure to choose people who will be able to provide different—complementary—profiles of you. Selecting two English professors who specialized in Chaucerian literature, for example, will very likely make for two dangerously similar letters. Law schools will wonder about the depth and breadth of your skills and interests, and if you are capable of interacting with more than one type of person. If you have been out of school for some time, consider submitting a combination of professorial and employer recommendations.
- Choose people of different genders. This is particularly true if you look like someone who may not do well under the supervision of people of a certain gender (if you are a male army Lieutenant, for example, consider having the female Captain write a letter of recommendation). This rule is not hard and fast, however; only select on the basis of gender if it is otherwise a close call.
- Choose people who can address one or more of the key subjects: your brains, your character, your professional success, or your leadership skills. Obviously, not just any professor or employer will do.
- Choose someone who has seen your abilities in more than one format. A thesis advisor, for example, fits the bill perfectly—someone who knows your writing intimately, and has heard you defend it verbally; someone who has watched you pull together a brilliant project; someone who knows your ability to digest a large amount of material. If it has been a long time since you have been in school, or your thesis advisor disliked you or passed away, you may have to find a substitute. Anyone who has seen you work on difficult intellectual challenges is a possible recommender.
Yes. Although admissions directors often state that they prefer to receive letters of recommendation written by professors, law schools are shifting towards a professionally-oriented model. More than half of the top schools state very explicitly in their admissions information that they accept, and find value in, recommendations from employers. Firms desire mature people with real-world experience and savvy; consequently, law schools are seeking older applicants who possess these qualities and experiences. What all of this amounts to is an increase in the value of employer recommendations. More and more applicants are using employers to illustrate the intellectual abilities that would otherwise have been described by a professor.
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Other Criteria in Choosing a Recommender
- Choose someone able to support your positioning. If you claim to be a hardcore philanthropist and public interest advocate, at least one of your recommenders should be able to discuss your serious commitment to the public good. Failure to choose an employer, colleague, or client who has seen this type of work over a reasonable period of time would raise a major red flag,
- Choose someone able to address any potential weak spot in your application.
- Beware the naysayers! Certain personal characteristics suggest that a person will be effective in their support.
Ideally, you should start the process about three months before the recommendation deadline. Begin your overture to a potential supporter by scheduling a 30- to 45-minute conference with her. (You will get a better response by having this meeting in person rather than by telephone.) Run it as a proper business meeting, with a typed agenda and outline of each matter you want to share. Explain briefly where you wish to go in your career and what it will take to get there. Explain how you plan to fully take advantage of a law degree. Then tell her what is required in the application process, being careful to explain how important the applications are, including the recommendations. Tell her that you have been considering having her write on your behalf.
Now comes one of the critical parts of the recommendation process. Make sure each recommender is going to write a very favorable recommendation for you. The way to be sure of this is by giving the person a chance to beg off if she is unable to write on your behalf. If she is uncomfortable about writing for you, because she knows that honesty would require her to be less than highly favorable, she will take this opportunity to suggest that someone else might be more appropriate. If she gives this kind of answer, do not press her. Thank her for her time and move on.
If, on the other hand, she is encouraging, give her a further briefing. Tell her how much work will be involved, noting that you will make the process as painless as possible for her, thereby limiting her involvement to something under three hours. (If time is a major issue for her, suggest that you write a first draft that she can then quickly "adapt."
A good recommendation should show you are an outstanding individual, one who is an appropriate candidate for a top law school by virtue of having the appropriate intellectual potential. It should also support your individual positioning strategy.
The following are true of an effective recommendation:
- It is well written. It is grammatically correct and reflects the thinking of a well-educated person.
- It reflects substantial thought and effort. In other words, the person cares enough about you to spend the time to be as helpful as possible.
- It shows you to be a distinctive candidate. The use of examples will aid this considerably.
- The writer knows you well enough to provide several highly specific examples to illustrate her points. These should not be the same examples you use in your essays or that other recommenders note. As with your essays, the use of illustrative stories and examples will make the recommendation credible and memorable. This will also show that the recommender knows you well, thereby showing that you did not have to "shop" for one.
- The recommender does not mention things best handled elsewhere in your application, such as your LSAT score.
- The writer discusses your growth and development over time. Your drive to improve yourself, in particular, is worth comment because your interest in learning and improving is part of what will make you a desirable student.
- The recommender explicitly compares you with others who have gone to this or another comparable school. Have her quantify her claims whenever possible. For example, instead of "intelligent," have her write "one of the three most intelligent people ever to work for me" (or, even better, "one of the three most intelligent of over one hundred grads of Ivy League schools to work for me").
- The person shows how you meet the requirements, as she sees them, of a top lawyer.
- The general impression should be that a person of a very high caliber wrote a well-thought-out, enthusiastic recommendation for you.
