I am currently a senior architecture student at a prominent public university and I am applying for graduate school. One problem I have run into, like many others, is a lack of quality recommenders. So far, I have two professors who are more than willing to write a LOR for me but, I can not think of a single other professor who knows me well enough to write a strong LOR for me. I am usually a fairly high-performing yet, low-profile student unless I pretty much forced to speak with my professors one-on-one. Also, I was unable to obtain an internship this summer because of the current pandemic so I have zero professional experience. However, I have worked for a well-known store chain since high school and all of my managers adore me. I am sure they would speak very highly about my personality, work ethic, and (ironically) my people skills. Would it be tacky for me to include a LOR from one of my managers since it is, after all, just a convenience store or could their high opinion of me and unique perspective be enough to excuse the fact that they aren't an academic source?
