Hello everyone,

I've come across a dilemma in which I have to choose between a recommendations by my law school's dean and my former employer.

As for the dean, he is an alumnus of the school and would be regarded quite highly. But his recommendation will be quite general and nothing very specific.

Whereas my former employer will be able to express his view much more thoroughly and specifically. I believe my former employer is able to write me a better recommendation due to our close relationship and supervision over my work.

One may ask why not take both? The thing is I have already got 2 recommendations (one from a very close professor of mine and one from my first employer who is a law firm partner). So, which of the 2 recommendations would you choose? or which one do you think would make my application stronger?

By the way, I have one more separate question. Is it weird for me not to have a recommendation from my current employer? Only from the former ones I got here.This is because I worked at the old places longer than my current job (2 former jobs - 1 year each and the current job - just 6 months). Additional info - I graduated my LLB 3 and a half years ago and currently a full-time postgrad student.

Thank you very much for reading....and especially for sharing your views.

Slow

just submit all four recommendations. i know people who submitted seven or eight recommendations when the application called for only three.

Thank you for your insights. Anyone else is feeling like sharing?

You should send the recommendations from people who can say excellent things about you. Recommendations matter a lot but if they can show to the School you are applying for that you deserve a spot in the program. So get for the recommendations that will make you shine. It does not matter if you do not have recommendations from your current employer, what matters is that you can show things on your recommendations that cannot be shown anywhere else ( for instance on your personal statement). Also, it is important you give a guide to your recommenders on how to write what you need. Some people are open to such kind of guidance and for your application is truly important.
Good luck!

I agree with the others: If you can send in all four, send them in. But if you have to make a decision, then I would go with the dean's recommendation. A dean's word, especially if he is an alumni of the school you apply to, has a lot of weight just because it comes from the dean. Any foreign admission office will be able to see that you managed to procure a recommendation letter from a highly respected person in your country and that will already count a lot. As to the content: You have the other recommendations to praise you and to talk in detail about your work, so it won't hurt if the dean's recommendation doesn't go into that much detail.

Send all four recommendations as long as the school you are applying to does not say something like "No more than 3 recommendations will be accepted"

Thank you guys for all your advice. So, if there is a limit on the number of recommendations, I should go for the dean's?

For someone with 3 years of work experience, is only one recommendation from a professor enough? Let's say 2 from employers and 1 from professor. Or should I try to get 2 from professors and only one from employer?

Thanks!!

Hi there,

For recommendations, I would make a balance between people that they know well and people that know you well. I had a letter from a professor who had been a visiting faculty at 2 of the 3 schools I was applying for and an alumnus of the 3rd one, representing the 'people they know well' side. Some schools even ask whether the recommender has any relationship with the school, so it can be particularly helpful for those cases. And I had a letter from a professor who had known me for 5 years, whom I was working for a the time, and who was a master in writing juicy letters but who wasn't a big shot. He took care of the 'people that know you well' side. The strategy worked very well.

I wouldn't say submitting all the letters you have is always a plus. Even for Harvard, which accepts 3 letters, I only submitted the two above (and was waitlisted -- perhaps a third could have done the trick but that's not the point: the point is that you may be better off with 3 carefully selected letters than with a long list of mediocre letters).

Good luck!