Hi all

I am applying to Harvard, Columbia and NYU and have 2 academic references and 1 professional reference but am wondering which to use - Columbia is the only one that definitely requires a professional one, and I am presuming that an academic reference would probably be better for an LLM?

One the one hand, I feel that my professional referee knows me better having worked with me much more, and of course is more recent than when I was at university doing my law degree. What concerns me is that the Harvard and NYU application forms say that your reference must be written by the referee or your application is at risk of disqualification. My professional referee has asked me to prepare a draft of the reference which she will then review and then confirm. So maybe for Harvard and NYU I should stick to the academic references?

Any opinions on this are much appreciated - it confuses me as surely it is common for recommenders to ask you to draft the recommendation for them as they are usually busy...

Thanks for your help.

It definitely sounds like your professional refereee knows you better and is in a position to write you a better reference letter.

That being said I would not want to run the risk of disqualification. Consider advising your referee that they must write the reference letter themselves for it to be valid and offer to draft an outline of the letter based on mutually agreed points. Then this will simplify their busy life when drafting the letter but it will still be drafted by them.

Just my thoughts, good luck!