Hi all,

Have a general question. I am thinking of applying for my LLM next year, and three very high-ranking professors (all full Professor with stellar credentials), one Judge (in the highest court in my country) and two top ranking lawyers (who have been ranked internationally since time immemorial) have all intimated that they wish to write a recommendation on my behalf.

The problem of course, sounds like a dream except for one unfortunate reality: most schools explicitly state that they want at most 3 recommendations. My question is therefore this: what would such a school (such as Harvard and NYU) think if I had five or six recommendations - I mean, I find it near impossible (and, indeed, somewhat insulting) to turn down such distinguished recommenders and this leaves me in the odd situation of possibly having too many recommendations. Also, since we do not have sight of the recommendations before the recommenders send such documents in (and for ethical reasons, I am waiving any right to see it), choosing three out of six recommendations to support your application is akin to Russian Roulette: how good you look is dependent on how correctly you select the best three recommendations in a completely blind and random selection process.

Furthermore, quite apart from the possibility of offending people fairly high on the hierachy by rejecting their generous offer, it does seem like an absurd waste that I should be rejecting offers of letters of recommendations that may well be stellar or highlight strengths others may have inadvertantly missed out on on the basis of some artificial number that I am told to adhere to.

As such, my question is this: given that I'm quite confident that most of them would be excellent recommendations, what should be my next step?

I know this sounds like any applicant's dream but unfortunately, it's turning out to be somewhat of a nightmare for me since I'm not too sure what I should be doing in such circumstances. Do the schools mind if I send in 5 or 6 recommendations, as long as they are all stellar, or would they be supremely pissed at my lack of adherence to the stated requirements (of 2 or 3 recommendations ONLY)? Would appreciate it if any of you guys have any views on what can be done (especially those who faced the same problem before) and how best for me to proceed so that I can properly ensure that I do not insult each of those who had offered whilst at the same time, not insulting the admissions officers from the various institutions that I plan to apply to?

Thanks so much in advance for any advice you can proffer and god bless!

Jen

I sent five letters of recommendation last year when I was applying for LLM. I might have exaggerated though, but I have got accepted where I wanted.

You need to bear in mind some general rules:
1) It is not an easy thing to write a good and convincing recommendation, and you do not have any guarantee at all that a letter written by distinguished recommender will be a good one. Name is important, but the content too. There really must be a factual link between you and the recommender (descriptive part), he/she needs to know you well enough to comment on your achievements (i.e. evaluate you) and finally be ready to find and spend some time to write it in a proper way.

2) It is a common opinion that the letters of recommendations from academic teachers and judges are viewed better than letters from the attorneys.

3). Think what the recommenders might say about you. You need to get most out of your credentials, and letters of recommendation are an important part of the application. If you get three letters from professors from the same university, those recommendations will most probably be similar (i.e. will refer and comment on the same facts). If this is the case, it might be better to get recommendations from people who know you well from other environments than academia, and here the letters from a judge or attorney might be helpful. In any case make sure that recommendations show you in a different light.