<p>Hello everyone, I am currently in the process of asking for LOR's and I had a quick question. I know academic LOR's are recommended and preferred, but will it be okay if I have strong LOR's that are not academic? Or maybe only one that is academic? And what exactly is an academic letter? I have one from my TA, but she is not a professor, and we did research together, but not an actual class. </p>
<p>Also, do any of the top tier (Top 15) law schools require academic letters, even if I am taking two years off?</p>
<p>One more question about GPA. I just calculated my UCLA LSDAS GPA and it came out to be a 3.49 (Do they look at the actual GPA, which is a 3.4?). And my Pasadena City College GPA is 3.78 LSDAS (Again, will they look at the actual GPA, which is around a 3.72). My TOTAL LSDAS GPA is a 3.65. Do I have a chance in getting into a Top 15 Law School?</p>
<p>You should get academic reference letters before you graduate (many schools have credentialing services which will hold the letters on file for you). Then if you have been working a considerable about of time before starting law school, you should get a letter from your employer.</p>
<p>Even if you wait 2 years before attending law school, you should still have academic letters (from a professor).</p>
<p>Agreed - even two years out my S had two academic letters from professors and a third recommendation from his employer. If you are concerned that your professors may not remember you two years later, see if your school has a way for professors to write letters now that you can access when you need them. This “letter bank” is very common.</p>
<p>It’s okay to get a LOR from a TA if you took a class from him/her. Law schools do understand that at some large universities it’s hard to get to know profs well.</p>
<p>However, you MUST have two academic LORs or you may end up getting dinged at schools where you are in the 25/75 zone.</p>
<p>Ahh okay thank you. I’ll start asking professors now. Thankfully my TA is going to ask the professor to sign off. I had two more questions. Is it okay to have more than two academic letters? Because I’m not sure if my second is an academic letter or not. I did research with her in a pass no pass class, independent research. But he professor said it might be an academic letter?</p>
<p>And second, when can I make an LSDAS account if I am going to take my LSAT next fall? I want to be able to use the LOR service because at UCLA they only allow general LORs to be stored but not specific ones.</p>