July 28, 2007

LOR Dilemma

I have always associated a bit of awkwardness with asking for a Letter of Recommendation. I went to meet with a professor a few days ago to ask for their thoughts on going right from undergrad to law school. Mind you, this is a professor I don't know all that well, but then again I don't really know any of my professors all that well. I was planning on also asking them for a LOR...or at least how they would feel about writing one...but I completely backed out at the end and didn't even bring it up. Sad, really. I just feel so strange asking someone who does not know me outside of papers I have written to write a recommendation for me. In retrospect, I wish I had gotten to know at least one of my professors on a personal level. Ah, the things we don't take advantage of! To anyone still in undergrad and thinking about law school - please do not make the mistake of being shy around professors like I have! Life lessson, huh?

On a related note, I am currently compiling a list of things to give to potential LOR writers. Hoping to help them since, as I said above, I'm not particularly close with any professors. Should have that done soon!

Catch ya later,
A

4 comments:

Ann K. Levine, Esq. said...

Hi A - I'm so happy I found your blog. I am a law school admission consultant (www.lawschoolexpert.com). I used to be the director of admissions at Loyola Law School and (before that) at California Western School of Law. I spend all of my time helping people through the law school admission process. I want to give you two freebie pointers with your applications from the posts I've seen from you so far and I hope you don't mind some unsolicited advice.
First, you want the professors to write about things they know about you through their personal experience with you. So they should write about your classroom performance, exam performance, presentations you made, the seriousness with which you approach academic tasks, whether you took advantage of office hours, the contributions you made in class, etc. They shouldn't write about things that will be covered in other areas of your application. I have lots of posts about LORs on my blog - www.lawschoolexpert.blogspot.com and I welcome you to check it out.
Also, about personal statements, I like that you endorse brainstorming and free-flowing writing as a means of starting to think about potential topics. I urge you, however, not to concentrate on childhood. As someone who is still in college, and presumably pretty young, you want to highlight maturity and professionalism - this is hard to do when a personal statement concentrates on childhood experiences.
I hope I can be of help to you throughout this year. I look forward to following your progress.

Ann K. Levine, Esq. said...

One more thing: Would love a way to subscribe to your blog. You should place a subscription tag. I also use blogger.com and the directions will tell you how to do this (settings) - it's very easy. Then you can measure your readership through google analytics too.....

A said...

Hey there -
Thanks a lot for the advice! I'll definitely check out your blog as well and look at adding a subscription tag to mine. -A

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