I’m applying to law school and getting my recommendations from previous professors. I’ve got a couple of questions.
One of my profs suggested that I not waive my right to read the letters… that is, submit non-confidential letters. His rationale for this is the basic “That way, you can choose the right letters” spiel. Is it a good idea to submit non-confidential letters? Does this reflect badly on the applicant?
My “letter pool” includes four profs, but I need to narrow it down to three. These include a prelaw prof, a philosophy prof who specializes in ethics (which is a strong area of interest for me) and recently got a prestigious fellowship, a women’s studies/modern languages/world religion prof, and a professor emeritus of art history who is now a practicing lawyer. It’s been suggested to me that I should include the world religion et al professor for the sake of including a woman in my recommendation letters. Will this really make a difference?
No idea about your first question, but as for your second one: Choose the professors who are going to write the best letters. That means people who know which qualities law schools look for in applicants, and who know you. They can be the most brilliant professors in the world, but if they write a generic letter that sounds like they have only a vague recollection of who you are, they won’t help you.
For this reason, it’s a very good idea to give your recommenders copies of some of the papers you wrote for their classes, your resume or personal statement, and anything else that will give them a clear sense of your strengths as an applicant. Don’t expect them to remember you if you’re one of a hundred students a semester.
Unless your prof is dropping some kind of a hint, I believe not waiving your right puts the value of the letters in question. Just curious, do you absolutely have to narrow it down to 3? Law schools are probably pretty anal, but unless they say 3 and only 3, who’s to say? Maybe you can call the law school and ask how they feel about waiving rights, without giving your name.
I don’t know that having a woman write one of the recommendations is a biggie, but if your application is otherwise weak in the area of race/culture/gender diversity, this might be your opportunity.
When you solicit the letters, include as much information as you can about yourself and your relationship to the prof to jog the memory (“remember, I took this this and this class with you and wrote a paper on this and we went to that conference together and I like butterscotch and this is what I want to do when I grow up”). That way they can put together a more personalized feeling letter which makes it sounds like they really know you and have discussed your plans with you. Some profs are too embarassed/ apathetic to admit that they hardly remember you and will write really generic letters which help less.
That’s not going to be an issue, as I’ve maintained fairly close relations with all of the profs in question. They all know All About Ace™, assuming there hasn’t been a mass loss of memory in the past few days.
