How the Letters of Recommendations Will Be Mailed

There are three different systems in use for getting the letters from the recommenders to the law schools. Most law schools still want the recommenders to mail the letters directly to them. Professors are mostly paid, and many colleges and universities are strapped for funds; consequently, many professors refuse to mail letters out unless you provide the traditional stamped business-size envelopes, pre-addressed to the law school admissions offices.

A few law schools prefer to have the letters sent all at once. In this system, you give each recommender an envelope addressed to yourself. The recommender puts the letter in it, seals it, writes his or her name across the flap (to discourage you from opening and reading it) and then either hands or mails it to you. You include the unopened envelopes from your two or more recommenders along with your law school application. Or, you mail the unopened envelopes to the law school all together inside a bigger envelope shortly after you've sent off your application.


Law schools like this last system because it minimizes their clerical work. (It also gives you a good reason to visit each recommender a third time, and minimizes the chance of a recommender forgetting to write your letter.) But recommenders dislike it. Many believe that this system is not as secure as direct mail, and they are probably right. Others don't like the hassle of dealing with two separate ways to send off their letters.

As a result, law schools won't insist on the all-at-once system and will always accept letters mailed directly from the recommenders. If you are applying to a law school that requests the all-at-once system, I suggest that you ask each of your recommenders how he or she prefers to respond. Indicate that you'll be happy to return to collect the completed letter. If your recommenders prefer to do it this way, set a date on which you can return to pick up the letter. But if your recommenders indicate that they would prefer to mail the letters directly, give them all stamps and let them do so. Note on your application form that letters will arrive under separate cover.

A few very large undergraduate schools have central clearinghouses for letters of recommendation. If there's one on your campus, your prelaw adviser will explain how it works. Usually, you request letters in person from the professors who will serve as recommenders. Each professor writes one letter for you and forwards it, along with your forms and envelopes, to the central clearinghouse. The clearinghouse secretaries photocopy the letter and send a copy to each of the law schools on your application list. In general, letters sent out in this way are more impersonal than letters mailed directly from the professor's office. But the clearinghouse system reduces the cost of sending out thousands of letters each year. With this necessity in mind, law schools accept this way of doing business.

If the Letters Don't Arrive

At the end of the last chapter, I reminded you that it's your responsibility to make sure that your application file is complete. What if the letter that a certain professor was supposed to send never arrived? You'll have to jog his or her memory.

Bring along copies of the material you gave the professor when you asked him or her to write the letter. Also bring along evidence that your file is incomplete: the law school's postcard or the memo you made of your phone call to the law school admissions office. Say something like this: Professor ? I don't want to bother you, but I just received this notice-I wanted to make sure that there hadn't been some mistake, and that the secretary didn't lose something . . .

Most likely, the professor will fumble through the forms on his or her desk and determine that your letter wasn't sent. Give the professor a chance to blame overwork, or a balky computer, or the secretary, or the centralized forwarding system that the university j runs. Sympathize.

If the recommender still has your file with the blank forms, envelopes, and resume in it, ask him or her to note the law school's dead-line on it. If your recommender has to write something down, he or she will be more likely to put the file in a place where it will be seen and remembered. If your recommender can't find your file amid the clutter on his or her desk, replace it. Always let the recommender decide what to do. In some cases, remorse-stricken recommenders have called law schools, acknowledged their forgetfulness, and even asked that deadlines be waived so new letters could be written. (I've done this myself.)

If the recommender says that the letter was sent, tactfully suggest that it may be easier to send a photocopy than to argue with the law school about how and where the letter got lost. Offer to provide another stamped envelope. Try to dissuade your recommender from calling the law school and complaining about the incompetent file clerks who lost the letter and made him or her look bad; the recommender's anger distracts attention from your qualifications.

If you can't contact the recommender, or if he or she refuses to do anything more for you, your only option is to seek some other recommender. In my experience, some law schools occasionally accept late applications for this reason.