Sample letter:
When Elise Vanderpool asked for permission to enroll in my Advanced Political Theory seminar, I was very hesitant. The seminar standards are rigorous, and typically only junior and senior political science majors with high GPAs are permitted to participate. In 15 semesters, I’d never admitted a freshman.
However, Elise so impressed me with her prior knowledge of the subject matter and ability to analyze on the fly that I decided to take a chance. From the very first class session I could see that I’d made the right decision.
Far from being intimidated or out of her depth in a room full of seasoned political science students, Elise was the first to contribute to class discussion and remained a leader in stimulating conversation, adding new insights and playing devil’s advocate in the classroom. In the ensuing three years, Elise has taken two more of my classes, and in each one has consistently demonstrated the superior analytical skills, confidence and ability to think on her feet and express herself clearly that so impressed me during that first seminar.
I am confident that Elise will not only excel in law school, but enhance the classroom experience for her peers as she has for her classmates at Huckleberry College.
***
Let me be clear that the letter above isn’t the “perfect law school recommendation”, nor is it a model you should ask your recommenders to follow. One of the key factors in the effectiveness of a law school letter of recommendation is personalization, which means that giving your recommenders a template to follow would be just as detrimental as trying to follow a template in the creation of your personal statement.
Rather, this letter is meant to illustrate one way in which a professor or other recommender can smoothly work in his background (we know that this writer is a political science teacher, probably at a high level since he’s teaching this advanced seminar, and that he has been teaching at the college level for at least 15 semesters and probably more); provide information about the pool against which he’s comparing the applicant (we know that she’s younger and less experienced that the students he typically observes in the seminar environment, and that the group he’s measuring her against is somewhat elite in terms of educational background and grade history); describe the basis for his observations (we know that he has observed her in a discussion-heavy seminar, talked with her one-on-one, and then instructed her in two later classes, and that he first met her more than three years ago) and describe in context the characteristics he think will make her a successful law student (a knowledge base beyond her years, confidence, ability to engage productively in group discussion in an academic setting and think on her feet). And a letter doesn’t have to be long and complicated to do that— the one above is just over 200 words.
A very effective letter might also use even more specific examples; for instance, it might have focused in on that first in-class interaction and illustrated the quality of the contribution and the quick analytical skills before going on to say that those traits had been exhibited consistently throughout the seminar and the other two classes.
Another strength of this sample letter is that it opens with information about the applicant. While it’s certainly acceptable and pretty common for a letter of recommendation to open with the writer introducing herself or a stage-setting statement like “Lisa Jones has asked me to write in support of her application to...”, the general rule that applies to personal statements, optional essays and across most aspects of the application applies here as well: if you start out with something interesting, something that doesn’t look like every other letter of recommendation and draws in the reader, your chances of getting a thorough read are much better.
Photo by bobaubuchon
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