• How many letters do I need?
• Whom should I ask?
• What should the letters emphasize?
• Should my letters be specific to law school?
• How to ask for letters of recommendation.
• Should I waive my right of access?
• Where should my recommender send his/her letter?
• How do I know when letters have arrived at Dunster House?
• Can my tutor help me pick which letters to send?

How Many Letters Do I Need? Most law schools ask for two letters of recommendation. Academic letters are preferred. If you are an alumna/us, you should still include at least one academic letter in your application (many alumni/ae ask their managers or coworkers to write the other letter -- see our section on special considerations for alumni/ae applicants).

Students often ask if it is OK to send three letters. The answer is yes -- but only sometimes. Do not send essentially duplicative letters. But if you can get a good letter from someone who knows you from a completely different perspective -- a coach, for example, or a former employer -- then it may be worth submitting three letters. Don't forget that letters of recommendation are out of your control. You don't know for sure what you're submitting. The best you can do is guess from your relationship with your recommenders. Thus the risk associated with sending three letters: two great letters are always better than two great letters and a lukewarm letter.

The fact that you will send two letters does not mean, however, that you should only ask for two letters. If you are fortunate enough to know several great recommenders, consider asking all of them to write you a letter. That way you will have the letters available to use, when and if you decide to use them. Dunster House will keep the letters in your House file essentially forever. You can decide later which letters you will actually send to law schools, but you can only pick from the letters that are in your file. The wider the selection you have available at that time, the better! Of course, you should not ask someone to write you a letter if there is no realistic chance that you will use it. But it is perfectly acceptable (and a pretty good strategy) to ask 3-4 plausible recommenders for letters and defer the choice over which to use until later. Think of it as insurance in case one of them doesn't work out, or in case you change your mind about how you want to position yourself in your application, or in case you decide to defer applying to law school for a year or longer. As a general rule, more letters in your file = better.

Whom Should I Ask? First of all, as we've already noted, you should prefer academic recommenders over non-academic recommenders. Law schools want to know about your ability to thrive in an intense academic environment, and they consequently tend to give more weight to academic letters.

Second, you should prefer people who know you well over people who are famous or important. Obviously, if a famous professor also happens to know you well, that's great. But if not, ask a TF or tutor instead. Law schools are not particularly impressed by name-dropping. Send them letters from people who can really describe your work, rather than people who can confirm that you were in their class, or that they gave you an A. The best recommendations typically come from people who can go beyond vague platitudes and offer anecdotal evidence of your superior intelligence, skill, personal character, insight, writing ability, or whatever.

However, some law schools (Harvard Law, for example) do express a distinct preference for letters from professors. A good way to satisfy this preference while still getting a more personal letter would be to ask the professor if he or she would be willing to co-sign a letter written by a TF for one of his/her classes. Also, check to see if individual schools will accept more then the required number of recommendation letters - if they do, this might be a way to have both the weight of a professor's letter and the familiarity of a TF's letter both be represented.

What Should the Letters Emphasize? If your recommender seems amenable to suggestions regarding your letter, consider suggesting that he/she emphasize your analytical skills, leadership ability, ability to "get underneath" the readings, etc. Terms like "analytical skill" can be interpreted broadly -- just about any strong academic work exhibits analytical skills of some kind. The point is simply that law schools believe that legal work is unusually analytical, and consequently they're looking for candidates with strong "analytical skills." It's a good theme to emphasize if you have the chance.

Should Letters be Specific to Law School? Your letters should be specific to law school (i.e., they should explicitly address your qualifications for attending law school). However, they do not need to be addressed to specific schools. Most letters use a general phrase like "Dear Law School Admissions Committee" or "To the Members of the Admissions Committee." Law schools expect this kind of formulation.

That said, if you have a letter in your file that you want to use and you cannot contact the recommender to ask him/her to revise it, don't worry too much about it. Dunster students in the past have successfully used letters written for fellowship purposes, etc. But if you can, it is always better to ask previous recommenders to revise their letters for law school purposes. The Resident Dean's Assistant in the Dunster House Office will gladly forward a copy of your letter back to your recommender if they lost or misplaced the original.

How to Ask for Letters of Recommendation. First of all, we suggest that you ask your recommender in person to write a letter for you -- just make an appointment to see her or drop by during her office hours. Asking in person gives your recommender a chance to chat with you about your current goals, and to refresh her memory about you as a person. Approaching the recommender directly also gives her a chance to refuse you. (If the recommender is too busy or feels that she cannot write a strong recommendation for some other reason, it is better to know in advance.) For this reason, be sure to present your request in a way that gives your recommender a gracious way to refuse: e.g., "I know you are really busy these days, but would you consider writing a letter of recommendation for me for law school?" And don't take offense if a professor or a TF says no -- they're actually doing you a favor by admitting that they don't have the time or inclination to write a sufficiently enthusiastic and detailed letter. It is better that they say no than that they write and submit a mediocre letter.

Second, ask early. The earlier the better! Professors and TFs often get overwhelmed with requests for letters of recommendation at the height of the law school application season (which coincides with the fellowship season, etc.). Every year, a few students' applications are delayed because they waited too long to ask for letters of recommendation. Don't let this happen to you!

Third, remember to give the recommender everything he/she needs. This includes at least the following:

• A signed and completed LOR Form from the LSAC website (see the instructions).
• A stamped envelope, addressed to the LSAC.
• A stamped envelope, addressed to the House Office (see below).
• A packet of other helpful information -- e.g., your resume, a copy of the A paper you wrote for his/her class, a short paragraph describing why you are applying to law school, etc.

Should I Waive My Right of Access? Under federal law, you have the right to access your academic records, including any letters of recommendation, in your House file. This right, like most rights, is susceptible to knowing and voluntary waiver. As you know, most law schools provide a "Recommendation Form" or similar document that asks whether you will waive your right to access your law school recommendations. The House Waiver Form asks the same question. This is exceedingly common -- you saw something similar when you applied to Harvard, for example.

So should you waive your right of access? (Most people do.) In our view, the answer should depend (1) on how much you want to see the letter in question, and (2) on how likely you think it is that law schools will care that you did not waive your rights. Why might they care? The concern is that your recommender may have pulled his/her punches in the knowledge that you would later see the letter and might ask about it. Put differently, the concern is that recommenders will be less honest if you don't waive your rights. That's ultimately an empirical question, and lacking any real evidence either way, we're each left simply to intuit the answer. Our advice is that you should err on the side of caution and waive your rights unless you feel particularly strongly about the issue (some students do) or particularly hesitant to waive with regard to a certain recommender (this sometimes happens). In general, though, you should waive it.

Where Should My Recommender Send His/Her Letter? Your recommender shouldn't have to worry about the address, since you should have given him/her a stamped and addressed envelope! We also recommend having your recommender send a copy of their letter to the House office (see this document for more information), so you should also provide him/her with a stampled envelope addressed to the Dunster House Office:

Office of the Senior Tutor
Dunster House
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138-7523

Do not have your letter sent straight to law schools unless you have no choice (i.e., because you waited too long).

How Do I Know When Letters Have Arrived at Dunster House? When a letter of recommendation arrives in the House office, folks in the House office updates the website to reflect it. So, you'll be able to see in your file on Mooselaw that your recommender has sent his/her letter out. They can also let you know how many letters you have in your file if you've had them sent to the House previously. It is your responsibility to keep in touch with the House office and with your recommenders to make sure that your letters arrive in time for your applications. Click here to read more about the House office's role in the law school application process.

Can My Tutor Help Me Pick Which Letters to Send? Unfortunately, no. You must choose which letters you wish to have sent to law schools. Stringent University guidelines on confidentiality prohibit pre-law tutors from guiding you in your choice of confidential letters -- i.e., those to which you have waived your right of access.