<p>As a student enrolled in another graduate program, I requested three letters of recommendation for my application to that program.</p>
<p>The law schools I'm applying to all have applications that ask for 2-4 LORs.</p>
<p>Of the original three, there's two which I think are likely to be better than the third, as I knew the professors better.</p>
<p>1.) Is the number of recommendations important? i.e. will 2 communicate lack of interest, or the inability to get 4?
2.) Should I inconvenience new professors if I think they might be better positioned to write me a letter? (If they gave me higher grades, knew me better, etc.)
3.) Do I need a letter from someone in my current program?</p>
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<li>LSAC has a list of every law school and how many letters they require/prefer/accept (the list definitely has require/accept, and I <em>think</em> it sometimes has prefer, but I'm not positive). I had three b/c they were all from people who knew me in very different ways, and they were all pretty different recs. I would definitely say that it's better to have two great recs than two great and one or two "fine" (not b/c they don't say good things about you, but because they don't really add anything). Having talked to other (non-law) admissions reps, they just want a well-rounded picture of you, and they don't want redundancy.</li>
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<p>2) Yes. In general, writing recommendations is part of being a professor. And on top of that, the LSAC LOR service makes the whole process pretty painless, relative to those of other grad programs. They won't have to fill out any paperwork/worksheets for each school...just one letter, sent to one place, by one pretty flexible deadline (if a LOR arrives after you've applied to a school, LSAC will sent an updated report to that school). If you plan to ask each professor to write directed, rather than general letters, then the process will be a bit more involved, but this shouldn't be necessary in too many cases. Regardless, yes...get the best rec letters you can. Just ease the process as much as possible: plenty of advance notice, pre-addressed/stamped envelopes, polite reminders/follow-ups, a nice thank you, and so forth.</p>
<p>3) No idea, but my guess is no. Usually you're told to get recs from people who know you well, and you're told that academic recs are strongly desired, most important, or whatever (b/c presumably, people who know you in an academic setting can best address your potential as a law student). Whether this person is from undergrad or your current program is probably not an issue, although I suppose some schools could specify otherwise. Each application will let you know, so look through apps when they come out in the fall. This'll still give you more than plenty of time to notify your recommenders.</p>
<p>1.) Is the number of recommendations important? i.e. will 2 communicate lack of interest, or the inability to get 4?: The number is important. Follow directions. Each school has a different set of directions, so I highly doubt ALL schools to which you will apply simply stated "2 to 4". Each school's directions must be read seperately. In general, however, if a school says a minimum of 2 is required and a maximum of 4, you should go for 3. 4 is excessive but many schools now provide that "high bar number" because if they said they wanted 3, there is that one crazy applicant who insists that they should be able to send 4. Most applicants and schools do draw the line and know that 5 letters would be excessive.</p>
<p>2.) Should I inconvenience new professors if I think they might be better positioned to write me a letter? (If they gave me higher grades, knew me better, etc.): Yes, if they truly knew you better, though not necessarily because they gave you a higher grade. </p>
<p>3.) Do I need a letter from someone in my current program?: What kind of program is it? If its an allied field, it probably would be to your benefit, though I can imagine some types of graduate work which might be less likely to point to your success in law school. If thats the case, you probably shouldn't feel compelled to do so.</p>
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I highly doubt ALL schools to which you will apply simply stated "2 to 4"
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<p>Thanks for the heads up, but I've double checked and that's right.</p>
<p>Thanks for the other tips.</p>