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Joy Suder's avatar

Pip! Pip! I sit on the admissions committee at an expensive private law school, and academic LORs typically follow this format:

First paragraph: why the author of the LOR is so great

Second paragraph: explanation of the class in which the author of the LOR taught applicant and how the class is so very challenging and/or unique in concept because of the author's academic prowess

Third paragraph (shortest): the grade the applicant received in the class and more descriptors of why that class was so amazing/challenging owing to the author's genius

Fourth paragraph: recommendation comes here couched alongside why the author is to be trusted for having this opinion and bestowing it upon the applicant.

-fin-

I'd take a 4-sentence Salman Rushdie email pdf over this malarkey 7/7 days of the week. Potato/tomato.

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Dave Madden's avatar

See now I want to read the Shenny of one of these blowhards to hear them give advice on writing a good LOR. How do *they* sleep at night?

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Joy Suder's avatar

I presume quite well, comforted and safe under the weighted blanket of ego and white supremacy.

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