Professional vs. Academic LORs

[nickel]

I'm compiling a list of people I would like to ask for Letters of Recommendation and have hit a bit of a road block. I've read here and on most MA program websites that the standard is 2 academic recommendations and 1 professional. The problem is, it's been 4 years since I was in school and I didn't really have a close relationship with any professors. And by "close" I mean that I didn't really go to many office hours or communicate much.

Anyway, what I'm wondering is if it's really important to have academic sources or if I can just use professional sources. I have really strong recommenders when it comes to professional sources but want to know if it's an unwritten rule that I should get 1 or 2 academic recommendations.

Any advice is appreciated!

[bentharbour]

This can be largely dependent on a variety of issues such as: area of study (professional schools may place less emphasis on academic recommendations), the department to which you have applied, the admissions committee overseeing your application, etc.

The reason universities want to see academic recommendations is because academia requires a different skillset in certain instances than working for say an IT company as an engineer. Admissions committee's, generally, want to know that you are up to the challenges of graduate school. These challenges include, but are not limited to: methodology, theory, writing, research, and overall commitment to your studies. From my experience and what I have been told by former/current admission committee members is that academic references are largely the base for the candidate's 'potential' to succeed at the Master's or Doctoral level, which is important to the Universities.

That being said, if you are unable to get a 'good' reference from your old professors (which is what I am reading from your post), I would suggest that you use your solid professional letters. However, be aware that the university to which you are applying to may have restrictions on the number of professional or academic references. I have been told by many mentor's that "A good letter from a less known professor is better than a bad/mediocre letter from a well known academic" and I think the same sentiment can be applied to your issue.

Hope this helps at all.

[nickel]

It does, thank you! I see what you're saying about the fact that schools want to be sure that an applicant will have a high likelihood to graduate. With that in mind, I am going through all of my classes (at least the ones that weren't 500-person lectures) and picking out a few professors that I think might remember me. I might as well reach out and see, even if it is a small chance.

Do you know how early I should start reaching out to them? I'm planning on applying in December.

Thanks again for your help.

[bentharbour]

I would, personally, reach out as early as possible during the semester that you will be applying.

For example, you have stated that you are applying in December so I would reach out to them a few weeks into September (when things have settled down after the first few weeks). The reason for this is through my experience, professors tend (obviously not all) to organize their thoughts in terms of deadlines given in one specific semester. For instance, a professor would organize their time based around marking exams, papers, and final due dates. Contacting the professor in late September would give them sufficient time to reply and organize a letter for you if they agree.

Others may have another suggestion, but this is what I would do.

[MaxiJaz]

I had the luck of having past profs and research supervisors send me their drafted letter of recommendation for me to review. If you can trust me, I just approved it without telling them to change anything (pinky swear), but what a position of power! I'd like to think they were testing my integrity.

So, from an insider's perspective, if you're applying to a research-orientated or course-based program as I was, it would be better to get academic LORs, purely because of the nature of the recommendation. Some of the LORs were actually questionnaire-type forms and asked how competent I was as a researcher and student, as well as my ability to grasp difficult concepts. One of these forms went to my work employer who found those questions really impossible to apply to my type of work.

As you mentioned how you weren't able to form a strong bond with many professors...choose ones who you think would be more lenient and less likely to speak too candidly about not knowing you. I know some people who used their academic advisers as they saw them a lot, and it worked out for them.

[nickel]

Great, thanks MaxiJaz!

Is there any way of knowing what the LORs will include, if they are questionnaires? Not that I think it's a big deal to find out before, but just curious.

[MaxiJaz]

It depends on the school/program. When you're applying, they sometimes let you know of the nature of the reference during the application process ie. provide the e-mail of 3 referees so that we can send a digital form for them to fill. In that case, it seems likely they'll fill some sort of questionnaire/form. Otherwise, they might just have you contact the referees yourself and ask them to mail via post their LOR.