Welcome to the latest installment of Law Admissions Q&A, a feature that provides law school admissions advice to readers who send in inquiries. If you have a question about law school admissions, email us for a chance to be featured in a future post.
Hello, I asked my employer to write two letters of recommendation for law school. One for general schools, and one for my top school. What should he include in the more specific letter? Is there anything he should include, besides reasons why he thinks I would like it and do well there? Thank you! – L.V.
Submitting a recommendation letter individually tailored to a law school can show your interest in the school and help your application stand out.
To have a real impact, the letter should show a meaningful and substantive connection to the law school. Ideally, your recommender should have a personal tie to the school and be able to speak strongly to why you would make a good fit for it. Perhaps he or she attended the school or worked with its faculty and can identify aspects of the campus culture that would suit your strengths. Or perhaps the school has some program or specialty that matches your interests and background.
[READ: Evaluate Professors to Find a Good Law School Fit.]
In contrast, personalization of a more generic letter is a nice touch but less impactful.
Since it can be a burden to write multiple recommendation letters, your recommender might highlight his or her own connection to the school early on, to build credibility, and then cover school-specific content in an additional few sentences or a paragraph toward the end. Bookending the recommendation letter with these tailored references can help hold the reader’s interest and make the connection memorable.
Integrating specific language the law school uses can show the affinity and knowledge of an insider. If members of the law school community use a shared motto or concept to characterize the campus culture, that detail can be great to weave in.
[READ: 3 Tips for Managing Law School Recommendations.]
For example, a school-specific recommendation letter for Northeastern University School of Law should mention co-ops — the school’s experiential legal education system — while a recommendation letter for the University of Virginia School of Law or Cornell University Law School should mention those schools’ collegiality and appealing settings.
For a law school that serves a more specific region, like the University of Colorado–Boulder Law School or the University of Florida Levin College of Law, make sure the recommendation letter discusses your potential to contribute to the local legal community.
Of course, if you are asking someone to write you multiple recommendation letters, be sure to give him or her plenty of advance notice and offer to meet in person or online to discuss why you are applying to law school and what you would like the recommendation to include. Think ahead of time about work you would like the letter to mention and offer to provide supporting information.
[READ: Overcome a Delayed Recommendation for Law School.]
Don’t be pushy. Follow the recommender’s lead on what you should provide, but if he or she asks you to write it yourself, politely suggest instead that you supply ideas and supporting information and answer any questions.
Finally, you may find it easiest to request school-specific recommendation letters directly through the Law School Admission Council’s Credential Assembly Service, so that recommenders can submit their letters easily online. Be careful when managing such requests and letters, however. Sending a school-specific letter to the wrong school will not reflect well on your commitment to the school or your attention to detail.
No matter how things go, be grateful and understanding toward anyone who takes the time and attention to write you a personalized recommendation letter. Such generosity and mentorship should never be taken for granted.
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Advice for Law School-Specific Recommendation Letters originally appeared on usnews.com
