Office of Career Services

By spring of your junior year, you should have a sense of who can write a good recommendation for you. Most law schools ask for two academic letters of recommendation and most will not mind receiving a third letter. (A fourth letter is not usually welcome as admissions committees are reading thousands of applicant files.) Even though you may not plan on attending law school immediately after graduation you should try and get your recommendations on file before you depart campus - it's a lot more convenient that way. And, you will be fresh in the mind of your letter writer. After being away from Princeton for several years your recommender may not remember you as well. Letters need not be written in the year that they are used, so having a two-year old letter in your file will be perfectly acceptable to law schools.

 

In selecting someone to write such a letter, you want to choose someone who will be able to speak positively of your academic skills and abilities, and willing to do so in detail. If possible the recommender might also address your character, motivation, maturity, and the difficulty of your courses as well as the importance and the time-consuming nature of your extracurricular activities. Once a person has agreed to write a letter on your behalf, it is a good idea to ask if it would be helpful if you provide some information, e.g., a resume or a few paragraphs on why you are pursuing law school. At least one letter should be from a faculty member in your department. The additional letter(s) may be from a preceptor or faculty member from another department. Lawyers, law school alumni, etc., are generally only useful if they are well known to the school (major donors?) or if they are especially distinguished or accomplished in some way and know you well enough to write a meaningful recommendation.

 

Most law schools provide their own recommendation forms, some of them fairly detailed (with grids, checklists and the like). These school specific forms do not have to be completed - the Career Services Waiver Form or the CAS Waiver Form that accompanies each letter is accepted at each law school. In addition, since it sometimes takes a few months for a recommender to get around to writing your letter, give yourself plenty of lead time on your requests.

 

 

While no school requires you to waive your right to review your own letters of recommendation, a number of admissions officers admit that they tend to view confidential letters as somewhat more candid, and therefore more useful. While it's not a major issue, any competitive advantage to your candidacy---like enhanced credibility of your recommendations due to their confidentiality---is worth it.

 

Once written, the forwarding of these letters to law schools can be handled in several ways depending on your preference and who maintains the original letters. For the sheer convenience of it, you may choose to have all letters forwarded to and maintained by Career Services, through the Credentials File Service.

 

You also have the option of using the LSDAS www.lsac.org for processing your letters of recommendation. Some law schools request that you have your letters arrive as part of your CAS report. The CAS waiver form may be downloaded and printed from the LSAC website. Fill in the waiver form and provide a form to each of your recommenders. The letter(s) must be sent to CAS, along with the waiver form. Be absolutely certain to fill in every part of the form or the CAS staff will return the form to you for completion. (This may cause a delay in law schools receiving your letters.)

 

If you choose not to waive your right to access or not to use Career Services, you basically have three options: (1) have recommenders send their letters directly to the schools (remember to give them stamped, addressed envelopes), (2) ask the recommender's department to create a file for you, or (3) maintain and send out letters on your own.

 

 

Also known as the "College Questionnaire", these forms are not completed by a dean, but by the PreLaw Advisor – unless you have had disciplinary or academic probation, and even then, the forms must be submitted to the PreLaw Advisor. They will then be forwarded on to the appropriate Dean for completion. The sole issue addressed on this form is your disciplinary action/academic probation record. If your record is clear, that is noted on the form and the form is returned with no other comments. We do not use these forms as an additional recommendation, even though some of the forms ask rather detailed questions. Please be sure to provide stamped and addressed envelopes when you drop off these forms at Career Services.

 

Dean's forms are handled by, and should be addressed to the Pre-Law Advisor, Ms. Lyon Zabsky. Since they are processed separately from letters of recommendation, please provide separate, stamped and addressed envelopes for every form to be sent out. To avoid delays in processing, we suggest you send these forms separately. There is no charge for Dean's forms.