Tips for Choosing Your Recommender - Part 5

Recommender Tip #6: Show-offs
Most professors think they are A+, world-class recommendation writers when in fact, as I explained above, most are far from it. If a professor shows off about how great his recommendations are, don't assume it's true. Better to run far away -- in my experience, those are the people who are the most clueless about what a good law school recommendation looks like. I'd be especially wary of people who claim to have a great reputation with law school admissions committees or to have some kind of special "in" at the admissions office. There's way too much turnover among admissions officers at law schools to assume that the person who ends up reading your file will have even heard of that professor. The delusions of grandeur are hilarious from the admissions officer's side of the fence, but it's not funny for the applicant.

Recommender Tip #7: Presentation
I'm almost embarrassed to have to say this, but I've seen this all too often: Make sure you choose someone who can write well. It's shocking how badly some recommenders write. Sometimes one gets the sense that they're just hasty and sloppy and haven't proofread their work, but other times it's clear that they're just bad writers, plain and simple. Bad writing gravely undermines whatever good things they might have to say about you.

Recommender Tip #8: Timeliness
Be wary of professors who are habitually, chronically, congenitally tardy or disorganized. I've seen too many applications held up by recommenders, when the entire file is complete but for that one letter. Some people end up missing the application deadline entirely because of their recommenders. Don't let this happen to you. If the best person to write your recommendation has a problem with deadlines, you need to ask early and often and ride him hard, or pick someone else altogether.

Copyright © 2006 Anna Ivey

Author
Anna Ivey, JD, served as dean of admissions at the University of Chicago Law School. She now runs Anna Ivey Admissions Counseling, a counseling firm for college, business school, and law school applicants. She divides her time between Boston and Orlando.